Azure Crimson
by slexenskee
Summary: After a particularly harsh beating, the Hokage finally decides to give Naruto to a seemingly nice farmer. What he didn't know however, was that this happened to be the Leader of a terrible organization in disguise...Akatsuki.
1. azure: cerulean skies

_So here's the re-edited (VERY re-edited) version of Azure Crimson, which I have just recently finished and proof read. If you want to BETA this, then just ask, please. _

_I put this as the beginning of where the story begins, because I originally dove into the plot where Naruto is already grown up, and infiltrates the Chuunin Exams. So instead, I'm starting from the VERY beginning, where he's just getting adopted. _

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He had always known the world was a bad place.

The streets had long shadows that cast over the deserted alleyways. People hushed away from him as discreetly as possible, women hugging their children tighter, the strongest men backed into the walls. Shutters snapped loudly as the hollowed streets became quiet with only hushed whispers. The market place had become deserted in little to no time, and children kicking cans or even a soccer ball had stopped to cower in the shade of the bricked buildings. The city had lost the movement it was always known for.

Sometimes, he even wondered, if the dead would cower in his presence.

He knew the world was bad, but he didn't know why it was bad to him.

All he had to do was kick a pebble and the people would flinch. Sometimes he wondered who they were afraid of, him or the person behind him. But when he felt as if there _was _someone there, he'd turn around and be greeted by his own shadow, peering back at him in dark eddies. Even when it was sunny, the world was always so dark.

"Please don't worry, Naruto-kun." He heard a warm voice tell him. "I promise, this will never happen again."

He remembered looking up at that, his bright blue and trusting eyes looking up happily at the old man's wrinkling face. He had tried to hold him, but his arms were tied by tubes, his feet were bandaged so heavily that he couldn't see his skin anymore. His happiness faded into confusion, looking at his legs and body.

"It's nothing to worry about, unless…" The old man's eyes became stern. "Do you remember anything?"

Naruto shook his head, slowly, as if thinking, digging for what he was missing.

The man smiled. "Then that's okay. Everything will be all better now."

"Really?" He asked, hopeful.

"Yes, there's a very, very nice man who would like to take care of you. He's very kind, and he lives on a pretty farm with lots of cows and flowers for you to play with."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "Really? Really? When can I see him?"

The Hokage had a wide smile, brimming on his face. "Why, he's right here! You can come in, Tachibana-san."

A man, brimmed with a rickety straw hat, and farmer's clothes and a nice smile opened the door, clattering into the room with his tattered sandals. Naruto blinked. He looked so nice, and kind, so much more than most people he had seen ever looked. The Sandaime greeted the happy farmer pleasantly, shaking his hand and chatting with idle chitchat next to Naruto's bed. Neither two looked at him, already immersed in amazingly pleasant conversation, the farmer tipping his hat to reveal, happy, happy eyes. The man…he was just so happy.

And the Sandaime didn't seem to notice, that this man was utterly _too _pleasant.

Naruto did, but his mind didn't register that this could ever be a bad thing, and a large smile made its way onto his face.

"Now Naruto-kun, this is Tachibana-san, a very nice farmer from Suna." Sarutobi explained easily, gesturing to the kind farmer, who smiled.

"Glad to meet you."

Naruto nodded his head vigorously. "Yeah!"

"Do you like him?" The Sandaime asked, watching carefully for the blonde's reaction.

"Of course!" Naruto smiled, so big that it stretched to his ears. "…but…who are you again?"

"Naruto," The Sandaime lowered his voice. "This man is going to adopt you."

There was a silence, as, carefully, Naruto surveyed what that meant in his young mind. Adoption meant…that this man wanted him. That this man liked him, this pleasant farmer actually liked him, when no one ever seemed to like him despite his best efforts. It was almost immediate that after the connection was made did Naruto realize what could happen. The possibilities that blossomed as he looked at this man. He was getting a chance to start over.

"Naruto?" The Sandaime was worried. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yes!" Naruto said quickly, bounding forward and almost pulling the IV chord out.

The farmer chuckled. "Don't worry sunny, we've got a long road ahead of us, no need to get hasty. A long road…"

Neither of the other two in the man's presence noticed the after thought, both too happy. The Sandaime, because Naruto would be free of the burdens here in Konoha, but he could still keep in touch. Naruto, because he was getting a free retry, to make sure that this time no one would hate him as they did now. But the boy hadn't realized that this could be a mistake, actually, neither the Sandaime nor Naruto really thought of anything other then the tunnel vision they were seeing through.

The only one who had a decent look into the future was the good old farmer, standing so close that the smile on his lips could have been seen.

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With one last look over his backpack, Naruto sped away from the towering concrete slabs that faced upwards into the azure sky, his little feet tumbling in front of him to get closer to the nice farmer. He didn't catch the pleased looks of the Chuunin on guard duty as he left the city for good. In fact, he had hardly noticed the cheering as he left either, a small roar in the happiness that rung in his ears like bells. He didn't mind leaving actually, he didn't mind change.

He didn't say anything to the farmer, as he took long strides with his legs, and Naruto had to jog to keep up most of the time. There was still a cheery atmosphere around the man, but as the walls of Konoha became nothing more than specks in the distance of the dense forests they crossed through, even that began to dissipate. The man was no longer smiling either; in fact, he had a hard look that gazed into the thick forest, flickering through the foliage, like a cold predator.

Finally Naruto gathered what little courage he had, to ask a question. "Tachibana-san? Is…something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Naruto-kun, everything's going according to plan."

Naruto inched away at the voice; it wasn't the farmer's voice at all.

But still, Naruto continued, even though it was strange that the farmer's voice had suddenly went a few octaves lower that it's pitch before. Chords in his heart chimed in worry, blistering in his chest, but he ignored them. He chanted in his head that nothing was wrong, that everything was fine. It was what he did in all terrible situations, and even though most never turned out fine he did it anyways.

However, it wasn't until the farmer pulled on his cheeks like a neurotic, the skin peeling at his nails, that Naruto became scared.

The skin fluttered to the floor like bits of plastic, revealing tan skin, and multiple piercings decorating the bridge of the man's nose. He kept the farmer's hat on, but he had reached into his bag and clothed himself with a black cloak, the pattern of blood red clouds decorating the outline. Naruto was too frightened, backed into a tree, to run away, his knees shaking so bad he couldn't control it.

And then, he looked into the farmers eyes, finding himself dizzy in the thousands of pupils the man seemed to possess.

"Get up." The man through a black cloak at Naruto. "We have much ground to cover."

"Wha-

Before Naruto could finish his sentence, he was sent flying through the trees, tucked snugly under the man's arms. He was barely even able to see properly, his head swirling around in a mix of browns, and greens. Nothing was making sense anymore; the once nice farmer had suddenly changed. Literally. In a matter of seconds. He was nestled into black fabric, barely able to see what was happening, faintly realizing they were flying through trees.

But that was impossible. Farmers couldn't fly through trees; Naruto didn't even think _people_ could fly in trees. That was so farfetched to the five year-old, he had never heard of it.

Unless…could those ninja people fly?

Whatever kind of ninja that was carrying him and had jumped rather high, straight into the sky, and Naruto caught a glimpse of Konoha's high concrete walls, and he felt his heart shatter into his chest. It shattered into his shoulders; and his neck, he felt it breaking, and it hurt. An indescribable hurt that he had never felt before. Not the kind that always happened when he stepped outside of his apartment and was hit by something, but another hurt entirely. Something so bad he actually felt tears prick at his eyes.

It felt like he was leaving something very important behind, and that he wasn't going to get it back.

He sniffed a little, watching the walls from between rippling pieces of black cloak. He didn't want to leave anymore, he didn't. He wanted to be home, sleeping, feeling the sun touch his cheeks, to be with the old man on the top of the monument, making faces with the stars. He felt like whatever he had thought was happy was never going to come again. That something was being torn from him.

"No…no…" He whispered through tears. "I don't want to leave!"

"Quiet down. Someone's going to hear you if you keep screaming like that."

He supposed that that was the famer (or what once was the famer) that was telling him to stop wailing, and as he struggled, the hold tightened to an almost choking vice-like grip. It hurt painfully, being crushed into someone's side by a strong arm, so he stopped. His wails had turned to muffled sobs, and he closed his eyes.

He didn't know where they were going anymore.

With one last look at the quickly disappearing gates, he closed his eyes, tears flooding down his cheeks.

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Naruto didn't know it yet, but they had arrived at the destination which would come to him to be known as 'Home'. Actually, it was a place in the depth of Amegakure, and it looked more like an enormous mountain shrouded in mist then anything. As he stumbled to his feet as the man simply dropped him, he tried to look to the sky, but all he was were dense gray clouds that looked close enough that he could touch them. The ground above him was hard, and jutted out in large splitting rocks.

Mesmerized, he stared agape at the sheer height of the mountain. He had never seen anything like it back in the orphanage.

"Hurry up." The gruff voice of the person he would come to know as Leader, startled him.

He was already walking up the winding stair case that circled the edge of the rocky mountain, with steady long paces. Naruto had to scramble up to catch up to him. He had never been that exposed to heights, as he was now. Climbing up and up into the taller regions of the mountain, looking down was no longer an option, only making him dizzy beyond repair. Seeing where he was going was hard with all the mist, so he constantly switched his eyes from making sure he didn't fall off the narrow cliff and seeing if he was going in the right direction.

He didn't know if he should say anything, it seemed as if the man had a scary aura around him, something Naruto couldn't put into words.

Naruto wasn't looking, watching the fog around them dissipate as if it was fake (which it was) and he bumped into the man in front of him, who had stopped to do something. He nearly fell of the narrow cliff, trying to regain his balance. Leader was apparently doing something, what, he didn't know; it just looked like he was pressing his hands against the rock. What a strange guy, Naruto would have mused to himself if he wasn't so scared.

The rock slid open with a screech, and Naruto resisted the urge to jump back, he'd fall a few thousand heights if he did. Gulping, he followed in suit as Pein walked into the dark corridor. He couldn't see a thing, grasping the wall for support and direction, trying to use his hearing to follow the man in front of him. As Naruto turned around to watch the rock door slide back into place, he felt as if that would be the last time he would ever see the light of day, especially in this place.

Resisting the urge to cry in fear, he opened his mouth. "……. Tachibana-san? Where are we-

"Silence."

Something told him that the man didn't like children. That was odd, because apparently he adopted him. But, Naruto thought silently to himself, maybe he didn't mean to adopt him at all, or maybe this entire thing could be something that wasn't true-just a big mix up. There were tons of possibilities of how this could go wrong, and there were also a lot of other things that could be happening.

It didn't _have _to be the worst possible solution he could think of in his five-year old mind…right?

As Pein turned a sharp corner into a dimly lit room, filled with more people, Naruto started to believe that he might meet his end here, watching the shadowed face he could see in the candle light.

"Leader-sama," A voice interrupted the silence. "Is that him?"

"Yes." The 'farmer' had replied-Naruto was beginning to realize he was not a famer. "This is the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

Naruto was confused. They were talking about him; it didn't take an idiot to notice. But that wasn't his name. He was Uzumaki Naruto, he might not know his heritage, his parent, his family, or anything else about himself, but he at least knew his name. And that wasn't it.

"My name's Naruto." He butted in before he could think of the consequences. "Not Kyuubi…whatever that is."

The dusty red heard raised his brow. "Oh? Naruto is it?"

He wasn't sure if the man was mocking him or not, but he tried not to cry, fists clenched and bottom lip quivering.

"_This _is the Kyuubi no Kitsune?" An incredulous female voice came.

"He doesn't look strong."

"Or evil."

"No," Pein agreed. "He does not. At least, not yet."

Naruto wasn't sure what the man was talking about, staring confusedly between the members standing around him, some leaning against the wall, others hovering over him to get a better look at his face. He frowned, taking a step back, only to realize he had hit the cold hard stone of the wall. The only female of the group, a dull look in her eyes crouched down to his height.

"Come on. There's much to do." She held out her hand, which he took tentatively. She seemed nice.

Naruto didn't think she was scary, until he looked at her hand and realized it was made out of paper. Flinching, he pulled his hand away, staring at her hand as if it was to explode. She blinked, as if she didn't understand, before nodding in understanding of what he was so afraid of.

Instead, she turned around, motioning slowly for him to follow her.

He did, albeit he was rather unwilling, but he also didn't want to sit there under the scrutiny of the other Akatsuki members. So he followed her slowly through the hallways, unsure of where they were actually going, but running away was a stupid idea. He couldn't escape. He didn't know how, he was too weak to stand up to these people, and as badly as he wanted to become a ninja-he wasn't. Resistance was futile, as it is usually said.

He wanted to ask he who she was, and what they were going to do to him. Would that man really go through all the trouble to kidnap him if he was worthless? Well, he thought to himself, he has no parents, he's got no one who cares, and he's a nobody. What would they want with him? He's got nothing to his name. Yet these people seem so expectant of him, as if he's supposed to be some amazing person.

"Um…" His voice came out like a whisper. "Miss, what am I here for?"

"You don't know?" Her voice held nothing.

He shook his head tentatively. "No…"

"You are the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"I'm the what?" He ran up to catch up to her, trying to look at her face. "What is that?"

"A demon." She answered simply.

He stopped walking. So what all those villagers had said were true. He was really a demon; this cerulean haired lady that he didn't know had confirmed it for him. He was this, Kyuubi no Kitsune, or whatever this was called. And the little schooling he received in the orphanage had already taught him that demons were terrible things, scorned and should be hated. Konan went on ahead, though he was yet to find that was her name, until she stopped too.

He resisted the urge to cry. He couldn't be weak anymore. He didn't know where he was, he had no one, and to top it off, all the people here look at him as if they want to eat him, scrutinizing glares and all. He'd have to stand up for himself.

"Jinchuuriki."

Naruto snapped from his thoughts. What an odd word. "What does that mean?"

"It means a human who has a demon inside of them; a human sacrifice." Konan explained in her blank voice.

"I'm one of those?"

"Yes."

He smiled a little. That meant he wasn't really a demon right? Just a human sacrifice for one. Which didn't seem as bad as being a real demon. As his thoughts circled around, he realized that however this woman was, had said that to make him feel better. Looking up, he met her blank eyes. Maybe _she _wasn't so bad, but he didn't know about the others who were still probably in the large room he just left.

"Thank you." He whispered.

For once, she seemed a bit surprised. "I am just stating what is true."

He smiled, even though she didn't seem to care for his well-being, he thought that she might. So, they walked into his room, or, what would come to be his room. She pulled clothes out from a small wooden drawer, and he began to look around the room.

It was blank, certainly a little more interesting than the hovel that they made him sit in with the other orphans, but it was still quaint. One window, that saw into a backdrop of hazy mountains and a misty ashen sky. A bed, a simple four-post that was different from his normal futon. It must be a western culture thing. It had clean sheets too, something he didn't often see. Nothing else though, just a bathroom that connected, it was relatively clean.

"Here." She placed one of those cloud cloaks on his bed with a fishnet shirt and shinobi pants. "You can wear these."

"Oh…okay." He picked up the cloud cloak to examine it, wondering why they all wore them.

He had hardly realized that Konan was already out the door of his new room and into the dark corridor.

"Someone will wake you up tomorrow." She called over her shoulder. "But until then, please refrain from leaving the room."

He nodded helplessly, still clutching the cloak he was given to his chest, until Konan disappeared down the dark abyss of the hallway. There wasn't any light at all, just the small flittering sunlight that sometime appeared from his window, but nothing else. It was so dark; he wondered how they survive in there.

Naruto spent most of the evening doing nothing.

He sat in silence, tried counting, playing imaginary games, scavenging around his room, he flicked a bug, and he tried looking out the window. Hell, he tried _jumping _out the window, but it seemed that his room was literally on the edge of a mountain's cliff, nothing but gray clouds could be seen when he looked down. When he looked up, he could see the bright and beautiful delphinium blue sky through the clouds, and a large mountain in the background, snow at its tip.

It was really beautiful; he could spend his life looking out that window and never get bored.

Eventually though, even his five year-old demon chakra induced body had to get tired. Especially after all he went through today. Earlier this morning, he was leaving Konoha, thinking he was traveling a long way to Suna, and then suddenly he was flying through the trees like he was going to Stone Country. And then, he landed here, frightened beyond his wits by the heights of the mountain he just scaled, and walking through what seemed to be thousands of corridors.

And then, he fell asleep, eyes closing sleepily, waiting for what would come tomorrow.

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_So that's how it begins…I guess. No OC anymore, that was just a pain to right. I'm actually glad I restarted this, because now I'm not guessing for names of Pein and Konan…I think I named her Ebi :D_

_But whatever…just review!_


	2. azure: aqua oceans

_Watch out for time skips people! I'm pretty sure I made them noticeable, but heads up in advance. Some people were asking how Naruto and Sora met, so I put it in there, but you know, they seem to hate each other clearly, so they aren't friends for long._

_If you didn't read the old version, or you did and forgot, Sora's really sadistic. She's got a horrible temper, is a total brat, and is wacked in the head. Just a little recap XD_

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When he awoke, he was met with a kind of pain that his young mind simply couldn't understand. It hurt, yes, but there weren't any sort of cuts on him, no bruises, and no scars. It hadn't registered in Naruto's mind that there were such things as internal bleeding; he had only so far been introduced to physical pain. Truthfully, if he could have been able to tell the difference, he'd have said this hurt more. It felt more like something was eating him up from the inside that it did blood gushing out from wounds.

That woman with the pretty blue hair had told him to stay put. But he had a feeling that he should go look for her.

Bed sheets soaked in blood; he carefully placed two tiny feet on the ground, trying helplessly to stand up.

Everything was dark; he barely saw the moon out of his window. His ears held ringing noises; he had no idea how high up he happened to be. Cautiously as he could, he made the small steps it took to reach the other side of his room, grasping the door way as he made it.

Pretty sure it was raining, if it wasn't obvious from the pitter patter on the window. Lightning struck something nearby, and lighting the darkened corridor enough for him to see until the turn.

The farther he was from his room, Naruto realized, the less light he had.

The Akatsuki lair was designed specifically to be a maze, much like the Pyramids were that Egyptians created. Thieves couldn't make their way around, and, neither could Naruto at this point. So far he only knew he was actually moving from the sound of his feet and the hand that braced itself on the wall. He went up a couple flights of steps, turned, and went up some more. Everything was too dark to tell.

He hadn't even noticed that the hurting in his stomach had stopped.

"Hello?" He called softly.

No answer, naturally.

The little boy had started to lose a bit of faith that there were actually _people _living here. So far, he hadn't run into anyone, not even a door to indicate that there were even other rooms. Dragging his feet around, he was beginning to get tired all over again. He berated himself for ever leaving his room in the first place.

Again, he placed his feet in front of the other, one hand tracing the wall as he went. The rock under his finger tips wasn't very smooth, jagged almost; he imagined it to be made out of the grayish brown that he had seen from the poorly lit hallways when he arrived. The torches that had once lit the hallways were long blown out. Or, the simply weren't on this particular level.

Either way, Naruto knew that he was extremely lost, and finding his way back to his room from the other side of a _mountain _wasn't going to be particularly easy either.

Coughing, he dimly noticed that rock was grayish brown.

Wait…

He could see the rock!

Stopping abruptly in his trek, he rubbed his eyes, once, and then twice, and pinched himself for good measure. He could see the rock. In fact, as he looked down at the floor. He could see a bit of his shadow too. That could only mean one thing, his young mind had barely registered, and that meant that there was light. And when there was light, there were people.

A smile made its way to his face.

After hours of walking aimlessly in the dark, he had finally found someone else.

Breaking into a run, he turned a corridor or two, ran up another narrow hallway, and made a sharp turn to the right.

He almost ran into something very shiny.

It took a while for Naruto to realize that he had nearly barreled head first into a pristine glass table, wire legs curling in an aristocratic manor. Behind it, a floor to ceiling window depicted the rain, the sides of the window covered by white drapes. On the glass table, there was a tea kettle, a fancy one too, the kind with an interesting oval shape and roses painted onto it. Along with tea cups, and so many different sweets that Naruto couldn't even begin to name them.

Cupcakes, vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate, unlike anything he had ever seen before. Lollipops in a variety of colors were wrapped and tied with ribbon, standing in a vase. There were candies too, the silly kind that was wrapped in bright colors and tied at the ends. There was even a cake! Fudge in lots of flavors, cut neatly in squares, along with plates of cookies, ranging from brown to white. There was a pitcher of milk too.

What would someone need this much food for? It didn't take this much to fill one person, Naruto knew that, he had done so himself, survived off of one cup of ramen for an entire week.

The strangest thing, however, were the inhabitants of the other chairs.

There were eight chairs in all, pretty things, wire swirling around its frame. Bunny rabbits, dressed in Victorian dresses, cats with top hats, puppy dogs with pompous jackets. And teddy bears too, all neatly dressed with better clothes than even he had. This must have been so expensive! The entire thing, the entire room actually, a pretty pink and soft rug had changed instead of the dreary rock, white trim walls instead of stone.

Carefully, he prodded one of the animals.

Shocked, he found that they weren't real at all.

"What are _you _doing to Mrs. Fudge?!?!"

Almost immediately did Naruto spring back, nearly hitting one of the chairs. He blinked, his pretty blue eyes wide in curiosity.

The girl was definitely one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen.

She was frowning though, green eyes lined with long eyelashes staring down at him, her skin was almost entirely ghostly white, a sickly and abnormally pale complexion, with ruby red lips. Her auburn hair framed her face, it was short and thin, pulled back in a girly pink headband. She wore a petal pink Victorian dress, its ruffles spilling over onto the floor. In her hand was another pot of tea.

"S-S-sorry." He mumbled out. "I'm lost."

Her eyes narrowed. "Did I ask why you were here?"

Impatient, she was.

Naruto shook his head. "But you seem kinda….uh…mad."

"That's because I am MAD!" She stuck her face near his, the only reason she seemed so tall was because he was scrambled on the floor.

Quickly, he got up, picking himself to his feet. He really had no balance. He found that hew as actually quiet taller than she was. The pout on her face kind of reminded him of a chipmunk.

"I'm sorry." He said again.

A frown still marred her pale face, but she said nothing, turning back to the table.

She took her seat on one of the wire framed chairs, eyes narrowed dangerously but it looked like she was outright ignoring him. He blinked. He was used to that. It seemed like her ignoring him was the only thing that he knew properly in this room. What a strange and crazy room. As she finished pouring tea, she finally looked up at him, eyes still dangerously narrowed.

There was an empty seat, on the table for eight.

"Would you like to stay for tea?"

It seemed more out of politeness that hospitality.

"…Sure…" He didn't know what else to say, plopping himself down in the chair.

She scowled at him. "No! You don't sit like that!"

Naruto was confused. Was there any _other _way to sit than this? He was never particularly taught the 'proper' way to sit and hadn't exactly cared to learn. Sitting, was sitting, was sitting. There wasn't anything interesting about sitting, so what was this girl talking about?

"Uh?"

She got out of her seat. "Like this."

Daintily, and in the most profusely odd way he had ever seen, she pulled the chair out a bit, carefully placed her bottom on the glass seat, hooking her feet nicely on the wire frame that supported the chair.

"See?"

He nodded, dumbly almost.

She leaned over, doing something fancy with her sleeve as she poured his tea.

"Butterscotch?" She asked him.

"What?" Naruto was confused, again.

She frowned at him. "That." With a nicely manicured fingernail, (especially for a three year old) she pointed to the cookies that were stacked nicely on a fine porcelain plate. The butterscotch, he assumed, were the ones that had a blondish tint to them. He had never had sweets, no one bothered to get any and he didn't bother to get some himself.

"Yes." He decided he'd try some.

That earned him _another _frown from the girl. "You say, 'yes please'."

"Yes please." He mimicked, and she gave him a cookie.

"Would you like a cookie Mrs. Fudge?" The girl asked one of the many stuffed animals.

They didn't reply, of course, but she gave them each a variety of the sweets on the table, before pouring them all tea. As she sat back down as gracefully as she did before (which was a bit _too_ graceful for a three year old) she looked around the glass table.

"What a lovely morning it is, is it not?" She smiled.

Naruto didn't know if she was asking him, or the other inhabitants that couldn't speak.

"It's okay." He eventually said, nearly having to pry the words out of his own mouth.

Her eyes flashed. "It is either lovely, or it is not lovely."

"It is lovely."

This girl was creeping him out.

"Sora-san, are you up already-

There was a pause, as blank eyes took in the room with a certain hollowness that unconsciously made Naruto shiver. The girl opposite of him did nothing but sip her tea with a dainty look on her face. A bit haughty too, but Naruto wouldn't dare voice his opinions. This girl was crazy. He was sure of it. Along with the rest of the people residing in a mountain, he thought, it was a mountain, why would you live in a mountain anyways?

"Naruto-kun." She addressed him, whatever shock she may have had was easily covered.

"H-Hai?"

Her eyes betrayed nothing. "I told you to refrain from leaving your room."

"I'm sorry!" He cut in before she could say anything else. "I hadn't meant to leave…it was just that my stomach hurt really bad…"

She blinked, slowly, almost owlishly. "Your stomach hurt?"

He nodded, waiting for any reaction.

"Sora-san, I believe I will need to take Naruto-kun off your hands." Her eyes moved, Naruto felt the chill leave him, to move to the little girl.

Naruto watched with high interest when the girl simply moved her verdant eyes upwards, not even flinching at the emotionless eyes that Konan had. They were so…lifeless that Naruto often found himself scared of her. Sora however, didn't seem to have any problems, a rather feral and un-lady like grin spread over her face.

"Naruto-kun has had his tea, he can leave." She took a candy from the bowl. "He is welcome to join in another tea party if he so wishes."

Konan simply nodded-much to Naruto's confusion. Wasn't she the superior here? This was confusing-and swiftly turned around to walk out of the room. She only looked back as if to ask him to follow her before she left the room. He stumbled out of his wire chair, nearly hitting his ankle on the metal wire, before he ran to catch up to her. He looked back, only to see that this Sora girl was already pouring herself another cup of tea and talking to the stuffed animals that sat on chairs. What a weird girl.

Konan said nothing; a butterfly of paper fluttered out of her cloak, and fell in her hand. Almost immediately did it begin to burn, lighting the hallway with dim light. Naruto realized just how complex the hallways he traveled in were now that he could see it. They spun around in odd angles, sometimes it was like going over a hill.

He hated to be fixed with her lifeless glare, but he had to ask. "Where are we going?"

Naruto waited for an answer, luckily, the eyes did not land on him.

"Somewhere."

Wow. Really specific.

If anything it made Naruto even more at unease. As they turned more corners and went down more steps, Naruto realized that he must have been on the highest floor. Descending down thousands of stair cases at a rather brisk pace, Naruto began to realize that his ears weren't adjusted to altitude that he was currently on. Wincing, he placed his hands against his ears in an attempt to get it to go away. Not working, but it was worth a try.

He hadn't realized that he had stopped in the middle of the hallway, on his knees, mumbling in pain.

Konan stopped, turning around slowly to watch the boy writhe for a few moments, a blank look in her eye.

Wordlessly, she took a few steps closer until she was next to him, kneeling down, and placed a cold hand on his forehead. Soon enough, she pushed her hand away, only to realize it was slightly wet from the sweat on the boy's forehead and the heat that came from it. She pulled the boy up with her hand.

Both of them disappeared in a swirl of dust.

--

--

When Naruto finally decided to open his eyes, he found that they were in one of the lower levels, still above ground, but not as far up in the mountain as they were. The area was well lit, candles lining the stone walls. They were at the mouth of a large room, one he recognized from yesterday. It seemed to be the meeting area that everyone was called into, however, no one was there as of yet.

"Pein-sama."

The man looked up; he sat upon a large jutting rock on one of the walls, as if it were a throne. The room was centered to point to that very place, much like a throne room. There was a hat on his head, much like the one the farmer wore. However, the cloud imprinted cloak shadowed everything else except the sandals on his feet and a sliver of his hand.

Konan lead him into the center of the room, before they stood directly under said man.

She bowed, respectfully, and he decided it was best to follow in suit.

There was a low chuckle. "Up. Both of you."

They complied readily, Konan seemed to know what she was doing, Naruto however, stumbled through the steps. Between his ruffled blonde hair he tried to squint to see the man's face, only to find it was shrouded in an unnatural darkness. As if, there was something blocking him from seeing his face, regardless if the hat was on or not. Strange, why would he hide his face? He was knocked out of his musings, however.

"Naruto-kun is complaining of a stomach ache."

He badly wanted to say that he was not complaining, he just told her. But he held his tongue.

"Ah? A stomach ache?"

Konan nodded, soundlessly. "I believe it may have something to do with the Kyuubi."

Her beliefs seemed to spark an interest within the man. He didn't understand much of this, he knew Kyuubi was part of him…or something like that. And that whatever was making his stomach hurt was Kyuubi as well. But either than that, his brain seemed to not comprehend what else they were saying.

He hadn't meant to intrude on their conversation, but he did anyways.

"Um….how are Kyuubi and me….uh…related exactly?" He tried to sound courageous, but it just made him sound even more terrified.

The man-no, he was scarier than any human he'd ever met-laughed, it wasn't the kind of laugh that Naruto had expected. It was a hollow sounding laugh that didn't seem to have any sort of humor strained into it. The sound bounced off the rock, echoes running in the hallways. If anything, it made him even more scared at the man-monster.

"He's a cute kid-

And Naruto wasn't sure if that really was a compliment or an insult.

-take him outside would you? He's in need of some training."

With that, Konan grabbed his wrist, non-too gently, and sort of dragged him out of the room. Her face was as blank as it had been when he first met her, and he had to wonder exactly what was going on through her mind.

She was sort of creepy.

"Here."

She gave him a push, swinging him forward with the momentum from a jerk in her hand. Stumbling, he found himself face first into soft grass. Wait…grass? Looking up, he found that, yes; there was grass, and a few trees. Light shone from somewhere far, far upwards, to high up for him to even see. The mountain must be tall. There were windows facing out of the rock, looking down on the small training ground in the center of the mountain.

"What is this?" He asked quietly.

"Training grounds."

Oh.

He sent her a confused look in his azure eyes, but she did not return the favor and explaining. He was still completely confused about what he was supposed to be doing here in the 'training grounds'. He swirled his foot around in the grass. Konan's stare was beginning to get rather uncomfortable, as he brought his ocean water eyes up to hers. He immediately brought it down as she fixed him with a rather lifeless glare. Naruto didn't think she did it intentionally.

Konan must have figured he wasn't about to do anything, so she spoke first. "Show me what you know."

He blinked. "I-I was never taught anything…."

"?" A delicate eye brow was raised. "Did you not go to the academy?"

Naruto shook his head. "Too young." His eyes looked a bit sad as he muttered this.

She silently took something out of her pocket. "This is a scroll. It has jutsu on it you can memorize. You do know hand seals, right?"

He nodded. At least he knew those.

"Then sit here and practice."

--

-- (time skip of about….a few months at least)

"Leader-sama? What'd you summon us for…yeah?"

Sasori shifted his eyes carefully to the blonde next to him, who had been his partner for a while now. He still was yet to understand why Deidara was so fond of, 'yeah'. Apparently, neither did the rest of the Akatsuki. However, the blonde idiot did have something of a point. It was unusual for Leader to summon them, and even more unusual to do it at such close intervals.

"Yes Leader-sama." He agreed. "Why are we summoned, exactly?"

Pein gave a deep chuckle, still standing on his rock.

Under him, the current Akatsuki members were lined up. Sasori, Deidara, Tobi (albeit he was staring off it space), Zetsu, Hidan, Kakuzu, Konan, Kisame, and of course, little Naruto look rather beat up, and rather silent as well. His delphinium blue eyes kept shifting back and forth between all the members, as if he was still very afraid of them.

"There is someone I'd like you to meet." He waved his hand pleasantly-almost too much at that-and there were footsteps.

Almost immediately did the members hear it, and could see very clearly who it was even though it was pitch dark. Naruto, however, had to squint to even make out an outline.

He should have known though, Uchiha Itachi.

The man-no, boy-was clad all in black, staring back at every member with an even more dangerous looking glare than the next. What a guy, already sizing up the Akatsuki members. Naruto scoffed to himself, he should no better. It hadn't taken Naruto very long to realize that these people around him were called S-class Criminals for a reason, even if they were a little _off_.

"Akatsuki members," Pein made sure his voice carried. "This is Uchiha Itachi, our newest member."

"Yo." (Hidan)

"Hey…yeah."

"Hn."

"Hello!-My name's Tobi and I'm-

"Hello."

Not much of a greeting, but Itachi didn't seem to be looking for any sort of greeting either. Hell, it seemed that Itachi thought they were just a bunch of misfits. That would change rather soon. Actually, very soon. Naruto had chosen to stay silent, sort of back up behind Konan, and the Uchiha didn't seem to notice. He was too busy getting into a staring contest with Hidan.

Naruto had planned for a getaway before the Uchiha could see him; however, he ended up tripping over the hem of Konan's cloak on the way out.

The Uchiha was quick to spot him, eyes widened.

"Is he…an S-class Criminal too?" Wow. He _spoke_.

Naruto gulped. How he hated scrutiny.

Pein seemed amused, drumming his fingers slightly as he leaned against the towering rock formation. "Soon enough."

Naruto wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

He didn't have to wait around very long either, Leader already standing up and looking ready to Shunshin. "Dismissed."

And soon, Naruto found himself very alone with a certain Uchiha as every other member of Akatsuki disappeared is smoke. The Uchiha's eyes scanned the area, as if he was seeing just how well this organization worked. His eyes, thankfully, kept off of the honey blonde as he made his escape up the many stair wells and maze-like hallways that made up the entirety of the complex. Naruto could only hope the Uchiha would find his way around soon enough.

He had been here long enough now to know most of the hallways. Or at least, the main ones.

Tripping up one of the steps, he scrambled up a familiar passage way, he heard faint voices from below him. It was rather unusual for him to run into another Akatsuki member, unless in the kitchen. And even then, hardly anyone was there at the same time. Once, he had run into Deidara, the guy wasn't too bad, strange, but not horrible. Zetsu however, one side was pleasant, the other tried to eat him. Every since then he stuck to himself.

"You're late."

The voice was sharp, as usual.

Naruto sighed. "I ran as fast as I could-

"Not fast enough." He was met with annoyed verdant eyes. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Yes, yes! I know what day it is!"

She frowned. "Then what is it?"

"Mrs. Bunny's birthday." He recited quickly, pulling himself onto one of the familiar chairs.

Nodding, she served tea. Naruto still thought she was one of the oddest ones here, but he said nothing. If anything, he might just be a…little (and just a little, he told himself) scared of her.

Come to think of it, why was she even there?

"Um…Sora-chan…" He managed to voice his opinions. "Do you live here?"

CRACK

Ocean water eyes widened, he managed to scoot away on his chair. Blood was already dripping on to the table, mixing with boiling tea that was already creating waterfalls down onto the floor. Lots of blood actually. It was scaring him, the look in her eyes; he'd never seen her so upset. And the tea was making its way toward him, dripping all over her stuffed animals and their fancy dresses, now stained with blood.

She had broken the tea pot.

"Get out."

She was furious.

"W-What?"

"Don't never ever, ever, ever ask me that!" She screamed at him, throwing a shard of porcelain. "Get out! Get out, get OUT!"

Narrowly missing a stab to the forehead, he ducked out of the room as quickly as he could.

He didn't even know what he had done wrong. She was just…so furious at him. All he asked was why she was here…who she was. She never went out; she never went to those odd meetings that he had to go to, with all the other adults. They were the only kids, and he'd told her everything about him. About Konoha, and his life there, even if it was a rather pointless existence (that's at least what he thought now).

But what did she tell him? Nothing.

All she did was sit there, at the very tippy top of the mountain, drinking tea and eating thousands of sweets with those creepy stuffed toys of hers. She never went out. He wouldn't' have known her name was Sora if it wasn't for Konan that one day.

His fear had quickly turned to anger.

She wants him out? Fine. He'll stay out. He didn't want to see her anyways.

He bumped into Itachi it the hallway, the Uchiha looked confused as he stared into his eyes, but Naruto ignored him. Maybe eventually the Uchiha would know his place. He kept walking briskly, almost breaking into a run, until finally; he bumped into an extremely hard object that he simply couldn't ignore. Looking up, he was about to yell when he realized who it was.

"Deidara-san-?

"Your eyes." His only visible eye looked confused. "You have blue eyes…yeah?"

Well duh.

Naruto nodded, a bit confused at the question.

"Then why's it red…yeah-

Red?!

Immediately, Naruto pushed himself away from Deidara's looming form, breaking into a run as he held his eye as if it was damaged or something. Red? His eye was red? How did that happen? For all his life, Naruto had known his eyes were blue. Sometimes, the lady at the orphanage would tell him that that was the only thing good about him. Not even she could say anything bad about them. However, now he was a bit confused.

He swung himself on the door hinge of his room, bursting through his bathroom door and feeling around for the light. Once he flicked the switch on, he turned around quickly to look into his mirror. He gasped, leaning forward, prying his eyes with his little hands.

They were _red._ Like a cats. Slits for pupils and everything.

_What's happening to me?!?!? _

_**I could explain that. **_

Naruto screamed.

Never in his life had he heard voices in his head. Especially one as crisp and clear as that. It didn't sound like his at all, it was dark and gruff. So foreign. Not even Leader's voice was as deep and scary as this one. It had him stumbling from the mirror and grasping on the floor in sheer terror. His eyes, if he could have seen them, had become so dilated they seemed to be the size of saucers.

"I am not talking to myself… I am not talking to myself…" He tried to pick up the shattered pieces of his sanity off the bathroom floor. A desperate attempt, but an attempt all the same.

The voice was laughing at him; he could hear it, grumbling in his ears. It echoed in his head, as if it was coming from a place surrounded by concrete. Slowly, he picked himself off the floor, trying his hardest not to scream, not to give into the temptation and ask the voice what it was. He wasn't insane. He couldn't be. He ran out the doorway, screaming bloody murder all the way through the corridors.

His little hands were clasped on his ears, as if it would block out the sound…the laughter…and the breathing.

It was like a horror movie, picking up the phone and just hearing breathing. It horrified him, as he closed his eyes (not a smart thing to do while running through maze-like hallways like these) and continued to sprint. Where? He didn't know. And he hadn't planned on finding out.

Until he ran head straight into Konan, he would have continued running until he eventually lost consciousness.

Well, he didn't exactly bump into her. She must have seen him-or heard him, he was screaming pretty loud-and simply moved out of the way, scooping him up and twisting him so he was pinned against the wall, frozen. He had thought that he was literally going insane, and hadn't opened his eyes until he heard her monotone voice.

"Please refrain from running and screaming through the halls, you disturb the others."

He blinked, still thinking he was out of his mind. "K-Konan-san?"

She didn't offer any smiles or kind words, but she did however, get him to stop. "What are you screaming for?"

"I-I…I'm hearing things…" He mumbled. "Stuff that isn't real…… am I going insane?"

Her eyes narrowed. One of the first signs of emotion he'd ever seen. Her face was still blank, however.

"And what did this voice sound like?"

He blinked. "I dunno…it was really deep and stuff…it wasn't mine, it didn't sound like anyone else's-

"The Kyuubi no Kitsune."

That really didn't clear much up.

"W-What?"

"The Kyuubi." She told him again. "I told you that you were a Jinchuuriki."

He nodded slowly.

"The Kyuubi has initiated contact with you."

Well, when put like that, none of this seemed entirely scary anymore. All normal, right?

"What does that mean?"

Her face had slipped back into blankness. "That means that the demon inside of you was talking. Those red eyes of yours are simply just a trait of his."

She must have read his mind to know he was going to ask that next.

Naruto nodded dumbly. He watched as she simply turned around and began to walk to wherever she was going, and air of grace carrying with her.

"Thank you!" He called after her, making his way to his own room.

She stopped. "I have done nothing worth thanking for." Before she started up again, her feet not making a sound.

With a last look, Naruto took off to his room again.

He didn't know that that would be his last encounter with Konan until he was twelve.

--

--

--

--

--

(Time Skip! **Naruto**: _My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I am twelve years old. _

--

--

A good few years did essentially nothing to him. He still had a mop of sun-kissed blonde hair, strewn around in odd angles, brushing across his face. His eyes had stopped being so interested in everything, settling for an azure like a cloudless summer sky. He still wore a blue shirt, still wore his black pants. His face had lost a bit of baby fat, but there wasn't much to begin with. He had certainly gotten taller, but he hadn't lost the nice tan.

He had certainly learnt quiet a few jutsu, but had yet to use them.

Uzumaki Naruto, already twelve, was extremely eager to start his first mission.

Standing in front of Pein-the man hadn't bothered to look up from his paperwork-he studied the oak desk in front of him. It looked expensive. Everything in the layout was all craggy and rocky, sans the kitchen of which had white washed walls, this room, and of course, the room Naruto hadn't been in since he was five.

When the Akatsuki Leader had finally looked up, Naruto still could not see his face.

"So, I am under the impression that you deem yourself ready for a mission?"

He nodded, a bit annoyed that the Leader seemed to doubt him. "I'm better than any Gennin."

If Naruto could have seen his face, he would have seen a large grin spread over Pein's face.

"This is no normal mission, Naruto-kun." He tented his finger over the desk.

He had peeked Naruto's interest.

"I am asking you to steal Konoha's forbidden scroll, hidden deep within the capital and in the Hokage tower."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. The _Hokage's tower_?! How was he supposed to get there? Apparently, Leader had caught on to Naruto's surprise-as if it wasn't obvious enough- and decided to enlighten the still young boy before he actually had a mental relapse trying to figure out how to complete this.

"Itachi will be with you, naturally, he knows Konoha very well, as do you, but I believe your memory may be a bit foggy after all these years." Pein told him flippantly, already continuing to write paperwork.

Naruto could only blink dumbly.

"Hai, Leader-sama."

"Otou-san is fine."

Naruto didn't answer him, opting to bow and quickly disappear in smoke.

When he reappeared, he was visibly upset about Leader's words. It was very odd of Leader to say something like that, but then again, Naruto hadn't seen him personally since that fateful day when he was five. Other than the very scarce occasions of the meetings with all the Akatsuki members gathered, he hardly saw anyone.

He was very alone. And hadn't particularly minded.

Naruto didn't talk to anyone unless he had to, sometimes asking about certain jutsu that other members may know, but he stuck to himself. He had been seeing that Tobi guy a bit more than the others, but only because Tobi gave him the scrolls that held jutsu he was supposed to learn. Suffice to say, he was an amazing ninja with terribly lacking social skills.

As he wandered into the kitchen to eat something, he was met with the smell of cooking. From his heightened sense of smell, it was some sort of soup. Homemade, not store bought. He wondered who would cook.

As he entered, there were two Akatsuki leaning in their chairs at the table, and a blonde that was cooking something.

He never imagined Deidara as a cook.

Naruto said nothing, however all eyes turned to him as he walked to the closet, grabbing a pack of ramen-to-go and turning on the other stove.

"Who's the squirt?" The man with silver hair said around a beer.

The other shrugged.

"That's Naruto." Deidara answered for them. It really didn't clear up all the questions though.

"Hey, Naruto." Hidan called to the blond, who seemed to be ignoring them. "Why are you here?"

The question was unsaid, but it was easily detected. You're too young to be here, so why are you?

"I've been here." He answered, already pouring his noodles. "You just haven't noticed."

"Yeah Hidan, he's the guy who came that one time, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki." Kakuzu pointed out.

"Really? Then why haven't we killed'em yet?"

"Because." Deidara was already pouring the soup into bowls. "He's Leader's adopted son, right?"

Eyes flashed red. "Don't call me that."

"O-Okay!" The other blond was taken back by the unexpected change of color. "Don't go all psycho on me."

With that, the other members left the room, bowls of soup in hand and the conversation sprouting into another topic. Naruto wasn't sure whether or not he was happy that he was alone, but his mind blocked it. He poured his ramen into a Styrofoam cup, swishing it around and drinking it a bit to make sure it carried enough flavor. Chicken flavored Miso ramen, his favorite.

He walked out of the kitchen, turning through the hallways like he had been here all his life. Well, he had.

Slurping down the noodles, he figured Itachi would already be at the entrance to the base, waiting to take him to Konoha. He hadn't been to that entrance in a long time, he scarcely came out of the base. He would have never seen actual sunlight-aside from the one that filtered from the training room-if it wasn't for the large window in his room; that was higher than most clouds. He wondered what it would be like to actually feel the sun and grass again.

When he made it to the entrance, he was amazed to see how bright it was.

For a while, he didn't even look at Itachi, didn't even slurp his noodles, he just stared into the brilliance of an open sky, open fields and grass. The cloudless blue that matched perfectly with his sea sprayed eyes. He was tempted to touch it, to make sure that it was real. The wind that played with his hair. When was the last time he had felt wind? And not just sitting on his window sill, stretching his hand out into the blue abyss, but actually felt it?

"Are you ready to leave?" Itachi interrupted him.

His eyes studied the man. No older that eighteen or so, and still needed to prefect that mask of his. It was near perfection, yes, but his eyes, they were easy to read. He had a long way to go until he reached Konan's standard of perfection. Nothing gave her away.

Yet, he nodded anyhow, noodles sticking out of his mouth.

Itachi waited for no other signal, bursting into the canopy of trees that surrounded the base of the mountain. Naruto followed in suit, chopsticks in one hand and another keeping the ramen in place. Quiet a feet, when travelling so fast, but Naruto was no ordinary ninja anyways.

It took maybe thirty minutes, Naruto trying to make his ramen last, when he finished the entire cup and threw it behind him (litterer!) and realized that he no longer had anything to waste his time on.

Passing scenery soon got boring when Naruto realized that the trees were beginning to get uninteresting.

From Naruto's understanding, Amegakure was a small place, bordering Konoha, they must have past the border already, right?

Casting a look to Itachi, Naruto leapt into the air, high above the canopy of dark trees.

Looking back in mid-jump, he found that the mountain was far from view, and in front were many more trees to come. To the left, there were high mountains in the distance. That must be Iwa. On the other side, there weren't as many trees, rivers running through the fields. The only place that seemed to have so many trees was there direction; Fire country, naturally.

When Naruto came back down, nearly breaking the branch he landed on with the force, Itachi didn't seem to care, as if the man had already known what he was doing.

"What time do we get there?" Naruto whined, pushing himself onto another branch.

"Soon."

"Like, how soon?"

"We have passed Border Town, and are heading to Konoha in thirty minutes."

"Really?" Naruto blinked, rapidly. "We travel fast!"

Itachi only nodded.

The rest of the trip was carried on in silence.

Only sometimes did Itachi speak, more or less to warn him if they were taking another route or so if a patrol duty was heading their way. Often, Naruto found himself grumbling, high speed travel wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The jumping wasn't difficult, and he had plenty of chakra to spare, but just the boring scenery was what bothered him. Nothing but trees.

But, he supposed, there were going to be trees everywhere.

It wasn't called The Village hidden in Leaves for no particular reason.

Finally, after roughly thirty minutes, Itachi made an upper-cut into the sky, Naruto quickly following in suit. They ended up landing in the higher branches of an enormous tree, its top swaying with the wind only a few feet above them. Naruto was awed at the sheer height of the tree, but didn't express it.

"That," Itachi pointed. "Is Konoha."

And, Naruto saw the familiar concrete walls that surrounded the city, and even saw a bit of the mountain where the Hokage were carved into. The tree line went on for another mile or two, before there was a cut off into grassy fields that eventually met the towering walls. There were four ways to get in, Naruto already knew that, one in each direction. They were decently close to the west gate.

"There is a guard duty that will be appearing approximately a mile away from the walls. Once inside, enter the Hokage tower by one of the windows. Do not attempt to enter by front door unless completely needed."

"I know." He huffed. "I've lived there too."

Itachi said nothing. He only turned away, disappearing in a swirl of smoke. However, he had told Naruto a bit of advice before he had left.

"Don't get caught."

Naruto snorted. What kind of advice was that? Any idiot could have figured that much out. With ego in check, Naruto pushed off the enormous tree with such a force that it actually bent the entire tree back. He shot into the canopy again, already on a crash course to the ground when he veered into a branch and sped off. There was nothing like the thrill of high-speed traveling. Even better when he was alone and not at all bothered by a certain Uchiha.

Naruto had completely forgotten Itachi's last words, when he suddenly heard voices, especially a loud one.

"Kakashi-sensei! There's something that just passed me-

However was speaking, Naruto didn't catch the end of it, he was too far gone to hear the rest of it. It was an amazement he even caught the words at all. Sounded like a girl. He smiled in amusement. A little girl. Probably his age, with even less experience than a rodent. That's when he stopped smiling.

A Gennin? Here in the forest? This far out from Konoha could only mean…

Patrol duty.

_Oh fuck_

Naruto's brain went into overdrive. What the hell would he do know? He could practically imagine that nearly nonexistent smirk-but you'll know it was there-that would be on Itachi's face once Naruto got the extent of his warning.

--

Naruto's brain wasn't the only one in overdrive.

Haruno Sakura played with a lock of bubblegum hair in distress. Their good for nothing sensei had left them. They were barely Gennin, she herself only three months into her twelfth year of living, and they had already gotten patrol duty. Usually a Jounin would accompany them for reasons such as this one, but Sakura had a feeling that Kakashi had turned his radio off and was currently reading that porn of his.

How very like him.

Now, Sakura was crouched in a tree with Sasuke and Sai flanking her, pondering what to do.

It might have been just a passing ANBU or Hunter-nin from Konoha, who didn't bother to hide themselves from their own countries' Gennin. Or it could be an enemy shinobi, because whoever it was, was taking the long way to Konoha, thus the reason why Sakura had beaten the ninja to this spot.

"What are we going to do?!" She frowned, looking at her teammates faces.

Sai shrugged. "Contact Kakashi."

"I did!" She whapped him over the head for good measure. "I'm not stupid!"

Sasuke had a look of concern over his face. "We should be prepared just in case. If Kakashi isn't answering, he may be in pursuit of this ninja already."

"Or he could be flanking off his job." Sai butted in.

"Or reading his porn." Sakura added.

Sasuke's frown deepened. "Either way, we should at least figure out who it is, we'll ambush them, and if it is really an ANBU, then they'll dodge."

The other's agreed, thinking it was a good plan.

--

"Amateurs." Naruto smirked.

He could smell the girl's distress from here, a couple hundred yards away from them. He heard her slap the other boy teammate, even over the wind rippling in his ears. But that just might be only him. He did wonder, though, where that, 'Kakashi-sensei' was at. He was no fool, he knew very well who Kakashi was. Hatake Kakashi, the infamous copy-nin.

Aside from what was in the bingo books, Naruto didn't know anything about Kakashi. Obito, however…

Instead of simply moving out of the way, or avoiding the little Gennin like most ninja, Naruto had decided that he was going to get a little fun out of this. The copy-nin wasn't here anyways, he-from what Naruto could tell-was a couple miles north, settled into a tree with a porn book. Probably hadn't expected much, especially with the Chuunin guard duty that Itachi and he had already passed.

It was easy to say that the Gennin were utterly surprised when he barreled out of the underbrush and soared over them.

Sakura, in the midst of hitting Sai a second time had had her fist poised above her head and ready to strike, as in return, Sai had huddled himself in a futile attempt to block it. Sasuke, standing a little to the left of the spectacle must have noticed him first and had already begun throwing an assortment of weapons at him as he dived into the sky.

Sakura gasped, momentarily shocked.

A man-no boy-had come out of the canopy next to them, soaring into the sky head first, the most beautiful picture she'd certainly ever seen. Sasuke had already begun to throw kunai, none of which happened to hit the shinobi but were worth the try. Sai was too, however, the skilled ninja had just simply turned his body around to avoid it. Her shuriken were no different, missing their target by a long shot.

Her eyes widened as they gauged the boy. He couldn't be a day older than twelve.

As he fell into the trees on the other side of their clearing, Sasuke and Sai tearing after him like a pack of dogs, they left Sakura standing, dazed, in the middle of the clearing, a shuriken still in one hand, and the other still raised above her head.

That boy…

He looked so young!

Verdant eyes narrowed, she decided she would have to tell Sasuke-kun immediately about this. What happens if this boy was from Konoha? That just spells competition. And Sasuke would be the winner, naturally.

With her thoughts in hand, she too sprinted in the direction of the young boy.

Naruto was having fun.

Almost too much.

He could smell the anger waving off one of them, the other, didn't smell like much aside from sweat. And the girl, a bit of confusion, but she was a long way behind him. Naruto didn't have anything to worry about, the other two weren't any better than average Gennin, no chance they'd catch him.

The wall was already in his sights, the Chuunin guards lounging around the ground talking and drinking alcohol.

They hadn't even seen Naruto as he leapt over the wall and landed in some of the farm lands on the other side.

That was too easy.

--

"Kakashi-sensei! Help!"

Sakura had already flagged down their ridiculously lazy sensei and the three of them were sprinting towards his tree. He had flipped out of it before they came directly under it to attack him, but he still had to miss a few punches. He would have laughed it off-which he actually was doing at the moment-but he gave looks to all of his team and wondered why they were so upset.

"What's wrong with you all?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head.

Sakura had already exploded into an explanation. "There was some guy that had run right past us! He had to be a ninja because he had dodged all the shuriken and kunai that we had thrown at him and he had jumped over us! He was super fast too! Err-Sasuke-kun, did you get him?"

Sasuke shook his head, his eyes filled with fiery anger.

Sai shrugged. "Too fast."

"Ah." Kakashi didn't seem to upset. "I suppose we should at least check in with guard duty to see if he was just an ANBU coming back-

"He wasn't!" Sakura interrupted. "I saw his shoulder-he didn't have a tattoo."

Still, Kakashi wasn't convinced it was threatening. "Then he could have been a travelling shinobi from another village, maybe he had a note for the Hokage or something."

"B-But! He didn't have a head band either!" Sakura added.

"Then we'll check with the guards, alright? I'm sure its fine."

Cheeks still flushed in both anger at her Sensei's passiveness and due to her out of breathe, Sakura followed her teammates as they headed back to the gates at a leisurely pace. She knew there was something off about that boy, she just had to convince Kakashi to get off his lazy ass and check. Sasuke seemed just as upset as she was, Sai, his face was that of its usual indifference.

As they walked through the forest, the ground dappled with sunlight, they finally reached the towering walls that protected Konoha. The two Chuunin were still lazing around, drinks in hand, laughing about something.

"Yo!" Kakashi waved to the two of them.

They waved their hands back.

Team Seven walked closer to the gates, Sakura trailing behind Sasuke, Sasuke having his hands in his pockets, and Sai walking along cheerily beside Kakashi. The two Chuunin, one with odd looking straight hair and the other one looking too sickly to tell if he was even alive. Kakashi didn't seem perturbed by the two of them.

"So, you guys see anyone come up around here?"

"Anyone?" Hayate echoed. "Like, who's anyone?"

"ANBU?" Genma coughed. "Tons. Their coming like flies from Suna. God knows what for."

"But you didn't see anyone who wasn't ANBU?"

The two Chuunin shared a confused look.

"Nope."

Kakashi smiled to his team, moreover, Sakura. "See? Everything's alright."

Sakura nodded slowly, the fear slowly moving out of her. Sasuke rolled his eyes, Sai, didn't seem at all interested in this little escapade. The two Chuunin were discreetly wondering what this was all about, and Kakashi just seemed once again cheery about life and the thoughts of getting back to his book.

"Well, I'll see you two-

"Genma! Hayate!"

The two Chuunin looked back to see yet another Chuunin running up to them. He didn't seem to be on guard duty, waving his hand with a parcel in it.

"What's up?" Hayate greeted back.

"T-This!" The Chuunin sputtered, leaning over to catch his breath as he gave the scroll.

"Huh?" Hayate picked it up, scanning through the contents.

A moment of silence.

"WHAT?!" He yelled. "The Forbidden Scroll was stolen?!"

Team Seven, Kakashi, and Genma all whirled around. Immediately, they crowded around the parchment to get a better look. In fine print, a letter saying that the Forbidden Scroll had been stolen out of Hokage tower, and that they should question all Chuunin and Gennin on guard duty to see if they saw anything odd happening around their gate.

"So, did you guys see anything?" The Chuunin asked.

Sakura nodded. "Yes! Yes we did! There was this guy in black that came and-

The Chuunin grabbed Sakura's arm, motioning for the rest of Team Seven to follow. "We'll take you guys to the Hokage. He'll want to know about this."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_So, I AM following a DIFFERENT story line. Only a little different, nothing too out there. It'll still have the Chuunin arc, and all that good stuff, but I will be changing it, and Sora won't be in this as much as she was last time. _


	3. azure: blue moon

_:sigh: This took a good bit of forever. No idea how I finished, but everyone's pretty upset with me at the moment because I haven't written in weeks. So this is raw. No editing. Proofread, yes. But that's about it._

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Turns out, the Sandaime had sent out a number of ANBU to search after the forbidden scroll, and all the other ANBU out doing field work were detouring to look around, however, it was pointless without a full description. Which was how the situation looked when Team Seven opened into the doors of the Hokage's office, flushed full with papers and mismatched items the current Hokage collected.

"Come in." He hadn't looked up, but his voice was welcoming.

However, it was not the Hokage who spoke, too busy with paperwork to interrogate himself, another ANBU was there for the job.

"Did any of you catch a look at the suspect?" His voice was gruff; he must have been in his thirties.

Sakura raised her hand, it quivered slightly.

The ANBU edged her on hastily.

"H-He was kinda short…I mean…most shinobi are really tall, but he looked like he wasn't any taller than five two." She scrambled for words in front of the blank mask. "His clothing was all black, and he must've been really good 'cause he dodged all the kunai and shuriken we threw at him."

"Anything more physical than that? Hair color, stuff like that."

"Blonde." She blurted. "He was blonde. I didn't see his eyes, he had a mask. His shoulders were bare; he didn't have an ANBU tattoo. Uh…he was pretty tan, not too muscular…"

Okay, now she sounded like she was obsessed with the guy. She slowed down, watching the ANBU's quick movements as he jotted down all the things she told him. There was only the scratching from the pen, and the sound of Sakura twirling a lock of pink hair around her finger, the rest of Team Seven silent. The Hokage was still working at his desk, he was listening, but he hadn't looked up.

"Thank you." The ANBU concluded.

Kakashi waved. "Anytime, Ibiki-san."

He led the Gennin of Team Seven out of the office, first Sai, an aloof attitude around him. Sasuke was second, he looked like he was fine, but his shoulders were so tense it was easy to tell that he was upset. Sakura's posture screamed confusion, and a bit of fear. At what, she herself didn't know. Something about the atmosphere around ANBU always upset her. There masks were so blank.

--

--

Naruto sighed for the umpteenth time that day. He was rather upset that Leader was yet to give him anything substantial. He made his way back up the mountain, taking the long winding staircase that encircled the enormous jutting rock instead of leaping to the desolate door at the top, as to not waste chakra. Not that he hadn't done that particularly in the past few missions.

It wasn't his fault, so he messed up a few times. He was still alive, the cut on Deidara's arm was healed fine, and the missions always ended up completed. He had always made sure to leave Akatsuki out of the picture.

Grumbling, he pushed open the door.

Silence greeted him in the darkened corridors, as he hastily made his way up the stairs cases and through the quick turns and abrupt corners that made up the vast hallways that stretched across the layout. He may live there but there were places that even he did not go. One, the small tea room at the top of the layout, almost at the very tip of the mountain. Two, Leader's special quarters, also at the top of the mountain. Three, the other Akatsuki member's rooms. He hardly wanted too anyways.

He pushed the oak doors that lead to Leader's office open, distinctly feeling the patterns etched into the wood.

Leader was once again seated behind his desk, the paperwork neatly done, and, for an interesting change, he was looking out the window in deep thought.

"So you've come back. In good time too."

Naruto frowned. He always came back in good time. "I finished the mission. The people you wanted dead from Sea Country are assassinated, not that there were many people there to begin with."

"With your humor in tact, I see."

The scowl only deepened.

"I have another mission prepared for you already. There's a rather prominent country a little north of-

"I don't want another crappy mission." Naruto's eyes blazed, flashing crimson. "I want something better than just assassinating some weaklings from weak villages, I want-

Leader cut him off. "You must learn to control that temper, Naruto-kun. Let me finish."

His voice was calm, but Naruto involuntarily shrunk back. Naruto knew that Leader was upset.

"Rice country is a main trading country of Konoha. I want you to eliminate one of their sea ports. I'm sure you're up to the task?"

Naruto grinned. Absolutely. "Hai."

"Good then."

Naruto turned to leave, hand on the door knob when Pein called him back.

"Meet Kisame at the gates at 15:10."

Naruto paused. His eyes flashed dangerously, blood swirling into azure like vinegar and oil. The chakra in the room filled in, hazing it red and making it difficult to breath. It was easy to tell he was angered. It smelt like it, an odd smell really, unexplainable, hovering over the bloody smog. The Kyuubi was so imminent in this boy; Pein was rather amused at his adopted son. It'd be a shame to put the boy down; he was such a fine addition to Akatsuki that Pein would actually like to keep him. The boy would have to learn to keep his temper in check, however.

"You really need to keep that temper in check." Pein reminded again, waving the boy off as demonic eyes turned to glare at him.

Wordlessly, Naruto slammed the door open, childish, but the only one who dared not to be afraid was Pein and…

As Naruto opened the door. He was greeted by a rather odd sight. A picture. Odd. Sending a furtive glance to the Akatsuki Leader who was already done paying attention to him (but was probably listening anyways, unbeknown to Naruto) he looked at the picture. Members. Akatsuki members. Naruto doubted that they were actually taken by Pein, but simply the frame was left there and Pein never bothered to take it down.

He recognized most of them.

Konan, Pein himself, Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, Kakuzu, and one unfamiliar man (Orochimaru).

The original six. (the pic kinda looks like the ones on when there all standing)

The last man, however, was one Naruto had never seen before. It wasn't unheard of for Naruto to just simply not know the man was part of the Akatsuki. Not everyone went to meetings, not everyone was always here. And not everyone bothered to interact Naruto, as he never bothered to do the same. Like Hidan and Kakuzu, if he hadn't met them in the kitchen, he wouldn't have known they were even members.

He swiftly exited before Leader caught him staring into space.

By the time he had made his way around the corridors, went down a few flights of stairs, swiftly avoided other Akatsuki members, and had made his ramen, it was already time to leave. Thus, he strutted out of the lair and into the dappled sunlight on the cliff that the 'front door' was located on. Kisame was already waiting, hair and cloak blowing in the wind, one hand on his sword. He must've noticed Naruto because he turned around, nodding once.

"So kid, you're my partner?"

"Don't call me kid." He bristled. "And yeah, I'm going to rice country."

"Good then, I want to make it there by dusk."

Damn, this shark guy traveled fast. But Naruto only nodded.

"Do whatever you want, just let me handle the city."

Kisame raised a brow, as they set off. "Alone? Leader-sama won't be happy if you screw this up."

"I won't!" Naruto snapped.

"Okay..." Kisame drawled, rolling his eyes. "You're still just a squirt y'know. Isn't that a bit overboard?"

"No! I'm old enough! I hate it when people say that!" Naruto fumed, turning his head abruptly in a childish manner.

Kisame only laughed. Naruto had to admit, he was better company than the Uchiha.

"Then show me, if you're so amazing."

"I will!" Naruto snapped back.

_Man, _Kisame grumbled. _Leader-sama wasn't kidding when he said the kid had a temper!_

The shark faced man didn't dare voice his opinions, not wanting to see what would happen if Naruto was truly angered. He had a feeling that his anger turned into a very deadly emotion when fused with the Kyuubi's chakra. This boy had so much power, it was unbelievable. No wonder Leader wouldn't mind having him around instead of just sucking the demon out. He was a valuable asset.

Naruto however, was more or less more interested in the passing scenery than debating his hidden potential. He already knew that he was a deadly being to mess with. And most of the time, he used Kyuubi's chakra at his own will, the mighty Kitsune allowing him just for the amusement to see what Naruto does with it. If there was one thing in the world Naruto hated, it was underestimation. People seemed to do that to him often, even back in Konoha.

He shook himself out of his musings as he smelt the distinct smell of rice patties.

"Are we close?"

Kisame nodded. "Only a few more minutes until we reach the port."

As if by magic, only a few minutes later did Naruto see the vast never-ending deep blue that made the ocean, lit by the setting sun reflecting on its waters. Tall spires appeared from under the canopy of trees, encircled by miles of rice patties. Dirt roads winding around the patties until they reached the city, and then, in the water, were fish hatcheries, little houses on the shallow waters where the fisherman lived.

From this high up, the place looked beautiful.

As they ascended down into the thick trees that surrounded the port, he found the place stunk of raw fish, and the roots of rice. No longer was the faint smell of golden rice lingering with the fresh air from the sky.

"Well?" Kisame looked at him impatiently. "You said you could destroy it, so go."

"But…"

Naruto struggled for words. But this place was so pretty.

"What, got cold feet suddenly? After all that big talk?"

It was low, to taunt and jeer a twelve year-old boy into doing something he may regret. But, to say Kisame was interested would be an understatement. He was utterly curious as to what this boy could do. He'd heard from Deidara, who went with him on a mission a while ago, that the boy had mercilessly ripped apart their target in pure anger, suffocating the other enemies by pure chakra alone.

Was it even possible to kill people just with-

He gasped for air, putting a hand onto the tree for balance. His breath was literaly sucked out of him, leaving him inhaling desperately for air. The forest was covered in thick smog of crimson, making it hard to breath. He watched warily as Naruto turned to him, his eyes meeting bloody pupils. The whiskers had become jagged marks running across his cheeks, his smile toothy, and the canines so enlarged they nearly hung out of his lip.

"Just watch." The demonic looking boy grinned at him, before leaping off.

He stumbled away from his tree, the smog around him lessening enough for him to gas for breath loudly. God, that boy could take out an army with that chakra! He could already heat the first piercing screams as the boy took out some of the civilians in his path. The birds had long since fluttered out of the trees, creating a swath of black covering the sky. It wasn't long before the city glowed bright, Kisame finding his face lit up from even in the trees.

He was beyond interested now.

Kisame stumbled up a tree, watching as the city was sent ablaze by the chakra sent from Naruto's enormous tail. The thing had to be at least twenty feet long, swishing around, crashing into buildings and setting them ablaze. The wooden structures crumbled under the flames, falling into themselves and the screams of people as they died. The single tail wasn't even doused when water jutsu was sprayed, an entity made from chakra, and sustained by it.

It wasn't long before most of the port was licked by flames, dyed crimson like the sunset.

Desperate screams hanging in the air, people clawing into the water to run away from the fires, and boats set ablaze one by one as Naruto leapt from each to each.

He stood there, on the dock, as the town burned into the ground, a crimson sunset setting behind him, and one lone tail flowing in the wind with his sun-kissed hair.

Naruto wasn't looking, too busy staring into the beautiful sunset to notice the man crawling towards him.

He felt a soft touch on his ankle, spinning around with claws spiked.

"Minato-kun…"

The old man's voice was soft. "You've come again, haven't you?"

Minato?

Who was that?

Naruto couldn't ask the questions he wanted to voice, already was the man closing his eyes and fallen to the floor with the other unmoving corpses around him. He could only stare, azure eyes like cloudless summer days slowly fading from the bloody shade of crimson that it had been. His mouth parted, his heart suddenly beating so fast. He'd never had something pique his interest so much as this.

It was unusual for Naruto to be rather fazed about anything. He had a deep hatred for Konoha, that ran through his blood as if it wasn't him who hated it at all, but something entirely deeper than that. Sometimes, Leader would tell him what was happening over there, the latest war or assassination, it never really interested him. He would listen, yes, but unless it was him doing the damage, it wasn't anything he cared for.

This however…this Minato character, this was something he was very interested in.

He pondered this as he and Kisame raced back to Rain, the fish man saying something about stopping for ramen, which he readily agreed to. But now he was itching to get back to the base to ask Leader-who had an infinite source of knowledge about the outside world-who he was. Was he prominent? Was he Naruto's lost brother or something? A relative? A threat to Akatsuki? His mind buzzed with questions.

--

--

"Sensei, what are the Chuunin Exams?"

Sakura was puzzled, but so were her teammates.

Their once again good for nothing sensei stared from each child to the other, studying their faces. Sai, had his blank look in his eyes as usual, the stare fitted around to the other three people standing near him. Sasuke was glowering, more so because he didn't know exactly what the Chuunin Exams were besides what the name entitles. Sakura was feeling horrible that her only strong point wasn't even working, how could she not know-it showed on her face easily.

"The Chuunin Exams are rather simple. It's how you become Chuunin. You just take a test."

"A test?!" Sakura exclaimed. "Like a written test?"

Kakashi shrugged. "They do things differently every year."

"So, we pass this…" Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "And then we are Chuunin."

"Precisely."

"Then, what if we fail?" Sai questioned, startling the other two children.

"You retake the test." Kakashi answered evasively.

It was true, of course. Mostly everything Kakashi said was just a twisted version of the truth. People died in the Chuunin Exams, usually just the stragglers, but Kakashi had heard that this seasons Exams were filled with new tough opponents from all around the five great Shinobi Countries, and he hoped that Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai were ready for the challenge.

"When is it?" Sakura questioned.

"It's in a month or so," Kakashi answered flippantly, turning a page in his book. "So we can rescue Tibbles the cat a few more times."

Team Seven groaned.

"But I don't wanna rescue Tibbles anymore!" Sakura whined. "I want a better mission! We're sick and tired of rescuing a stupid cat from a stupid tree!!"

Sai and Sasuke agreed readily.

"Maa maa…" Kakashi sweat-dropped. "I'll go to the Hokage and see what I can do, okay?"

--

--

Uzumaki Naruto (who would come to know himself as Namikaze Naruto) stormed through the Akatsuki lair with heavy stomping feet. It didn't take much to know he was dangerously upset. Not at anyone in particular, just frustrated. And the Akatsuki members who were currently there were not about to push themselves into the line of fire. Naruto would continue to be a threat to everyone if he didn't find a way to control his emotions.

"Leader!"

It was the one time that Naruto hadn't put an honorific after his name, but it was also the one time that Naruto didn't care. However, Pein let it slide.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. Back so soon?"

Naruto practically slammed the scroll down onto his desk. Fuming, he gathered his courage to look Leader straight into the eyes, no matter how creepy they were.

"Who is Namikaze Minato?!"

A brow was raised. Not the question Leader was expecting, but it was still interesting to watch Naruto mentally fight himself to continue to look into his eyes. What an interesting boy he had adopted. Technically, he didn't think of Naruto as his son at all, the purpose of the adoption was to legally have Naruto. However, Naruto had proved himself worthy, growing by leaps and bounds until he was standing in front of him, looking him in the eye.

"Namikaze Minato?" Pein echoed, as if he didn't know. "Why ask such a question?"

"Because…"

Naruto was taken aback.

"Because I want to know."

Pein chuckled. What a funny boy he was.

"Namikaze Minato," He began. "Is-well was-the Fourth Hokage of Konoha. I'm sure you know what that means."

Of course Naruto knew. _How could I not? _He was the man that ruined Naruto's life forever. Sealing a god forsaken demon into a boy that was nothing but a defenseless infant, who didn't deserve anything that was going to come to him. He was the reason that Naruto was in Akatsuki in the first place, not that he didn't want to be one of the most amazing shinobi at twelve, but because now he was stuck as a child without a past.

"Namikaze Minato also happens to be your father." Pein calmly added.

Naruto's eyes shot open. Crimson pupils spreading in bloody pools.

…

…

"…what?" Naruto's voice was so soft, and so deep, Leader had believed that it wasn't Naruto talking anymore at all, but the demon inside him.

"Namikaze Minato is your-

"_Don't say that_." Naruto seethed, leaping like a feral demon until his claws were digging into the oak desk. "_Don't say that ever again_."

Pein wasn't fazed at all. "You'll have to understand eventually."

"Maybe I don't want to."

"Grow up, would you Naruto-kun?" There was a rather bored expression on the man's face. "He'd dead. I suppose the least you could do is be thankful it was you who technically killed him."

For an odd reason, the statement didn't give Naruto satisfaction at all. However, there was a different kind of feeling in the bottom of his stomach-not anger, or fear…

Maybe sadness?

The thought slowly trickled into his mind.

Slowly, Naruto's eyes turned from the bloody sunset to the lapping sea waters on a shore. The deep red slowly fading back into the pristine blue that it usually was. The claws retracted until they were just lithe fingers curled into a fist. The jagged stripes turning into soft whisker marks. The Akatsuki Leader watched with the transformation with an amused eye.

"Are you done throwing your temper tantrum then?"

Naruto growled, but said nothing.

"I thought so."

Calmly, without breaking the eye contact, Pein pulled another scroll out of his desk, handing it placidly to the blonde who was still rather upset. Tenting his fingers above his desk in an aristocratic manner, Leader eyed Naruto as he clenched one fist to his side, the other holding the scroll he was just given.

"What's the mission?" He asked through gritted teeth.

He had another one already?

"Kirigakure." Pein said simply. "You and Kisame are going to assassinate a potential threat over there."

Naruto skimmed the scroll. "Who?"

"A pitiful excuse for an aristocrat-Gatou. The man should have known better than to cross Akatsuki."

"So you're sending me to do your dirty work?" Naruto growled. Run all the way to Kiri just to assassinate some civilian? That's crap.

Naruto felt a jolt as Pein casted his eyes to look at Naruto's. "All weak people have body guards, Naruto-kun."

The blonde blinked in surprise, re-reading the scroll over again. There. …_Gatou has two substantially known body guards. One, Zabuza Momochi, missing Nin from Kirigakure. The other is a mysterious figure of unknown origin and unknown status. Momochi and the secondary threat are both currently residing in a small town approximately ten miles off the coast of Konohagakure…_

"Zabuza Momochi?" Naruto's eyes narrowed. "He's in the bingo book."

"Excellent deductions skills, dear Naruto-kun." Was that sarcasm?

"When do I leave?" Naruto snapped the scroll closed.

"Tomorrow. Sunrise."

With an annoyed expression, Naruto bowed-much to his enragement, before disappearing from the office.

His room was as blank as it usually was. He never bothered to furnish it, he didn't know how to either. The bed was unmade; the sheets sprawled around in mishap. The bathroom still had blood stains splattering it. He never bothered to clean it. His clothes were strewn about too, a pile of dirty laundry in a heap next to the corner, and clean clothes were already sticking out of his dresser.

His favorite part of the room was the window.

It was open again, the breeze flowing into his room and the stench of blood flowing out into the open sky. It was cloudless today, he realized as he set himself with his feet dangling off the sill, the sun already setting into blazing orange. The sky was lit with an explosion of color, like a rainbow.

He immediately snapped open the scroll in his pocket again.

Something fell out of it.

"Huh?"

Setting the mission details aside, Naruto picked up the small scroll that was hidden inside the mission scroll. It was definitely smaller, the wood the paper rolled into was hand crafted with swirls and different patterns, the paper was worn out, its edges a yellowish brown. It was different from the usual scrolls he received.

He first wondered if Leader had misplaced it, but then he realized that Leader never did anything he did not mean to do.

Without a second thought, he snapped the scroll open with a crack.

…

Jutsu.

And not just any ordinary technique either.

The first one, written in a lazy script that was unfamiliar to him, was called the Rasengan. The second, he already knew, the Kage Bunshin, it was a recopy from the forbidden scroll probably, but Itachi had already taught it to him before hand. The third, Hirashin no Jutsu. Whatever that may be.

In another handwriting, that Naruto knew was Leader's, were other significant jutsu, not from Konoha though. They were the forbidden jutsu from other countries; Leader probably wanted him to study those too.

At the bottom: _Naruto-kun, I doubt you realized that the scroll you stole had this inside it. You probably have more use for it then I do._

A messy signature, which was probably Leader's, was signed at the edge of the right hand corner.

"Rasengan…huh?"

He said to himself, reading the little scripts and notes that traced across the parchment. He spotted the Yondaime's name at the top of the technique, and immediately realized why the Akatsuki Leader would rather have him know these techniques. The Hirashin was also the Fourth's, the same signature written at the top of that technique too.

Well, he should probably start with the easier of the two, which he suspected to be Rasengan.

--

--

--

By morning, he still hadn't gotten the technique, staying up until one in the morning until deciding that he should sleep so he didn't rely on the Kyuubi's power too much tomorrow. He also didn't want to seem like an idiot in front of Kisame-everyone in Akatsuki knew how much of a blab the man was. Which was why Naruto barely scrambled up at five thirty in the morning, rubbing a bleary eye and racing down the hallway while pulling on his shirt.

He rushed into the kitchen, no one in it, broiling the water for his ramen with his bare fingers. The Kyuubi's affinity for fire finally coming in handy for him. It took a lot less time then the stove.

When he raced down to the entrance to the Akatsuki lair, Kisame was already there, stretching his arms over his head.

"There you are brat. Can't believe I'm stuck with you again."

The fish ducked to avoid a kunai to his head.

"How long to Kiri?"

Kisame shrugged. "Well, we travel fast. Probably six hours or so at top speed."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Naruto growled. "Let's go."

He crouched, before leaping into the forest that he knew was below the fog.

"Hey! I'm team leader!"

Kisame leapt after him.

Six hours went by very quickly. The plants, trees, and occasionally shrubs were not exactly original, especially after Naruto had begun to realize that high speed travel was not that interesting. The scenery of trees got boring, the canopy of trees blocking out the sun until it became nothing but dappled light. Ground far beneath them, the two raced forward at their near neck braking speed.

Kisame had said six hours; however, it turned to take longer. Thirty-minutes worth of dodging guard duty. Ten minutes or so used to skip through the River Country's guards, and another ten for Konoha's. However, it took a whole other ten minutes to simply re route themselves and then places them on the right track. It hadn't taken long for Naruto to realize that Kisame had no sense of direction.

Another thirty minutes because Kisame argued that they should take the ferry, only to realize there were no ferries that went to this particular island. Row boats, but no ferries. So thus, it took ten minutes to simply run across the water with chakra, the mist surrounding it meaning nothing to them.

"Hey, did you see something?" Naruto raced next to Kisame, head tilted the other way.

Kisame rolled his eyes. "That's a row boat."

Oh.

However, it wasn't the row boat that caught Naruto's attention through the mist, but the pink hair of one of the people sitting in it. Wasn't that odd? It was somehow familiar.

Naruto was about to ask how much longer it would take them when a whiney voice came from the boat.

He snapped his attention back. The girl had said something in that high pitched voice of hers.

"Why do you think we're rowing girl?" The boatman growls. "So we don't attract attention."

She snaps he mouth shut.

They run past them before the Copy-nin looked up from his book.

"Don't attract attention?" Naruto echoed. "Why would they not want to do that?"

"Stop eavesdropping." Kisame shot back.

How could he help it? This mission was so boring.

"Probably has something to do with Gatou."

"Well, duh." Naruto frowned.

Kisame was annoyed. "Why don't you try shutting your mouth too? We're supposed to be stealthy here, anyone can here your loud voice from miles away." He told the younger ninja flippantly, dodging a swinging fist.

…

It wasn't until a few hours later did they meet their targets.

"The two body guards are here." Naruto whispered.

Kisame wasn't stupid, but he nodded his head anyways. "Yeah, I see the Copy-nin and Momochi, where's his accomplice?"

Naruto sniffed.

"Hiding in the trees. He isn't moving to help."

"Strange."

"Yeah."

The copy-nin was sealed into a water dome, his students erupting in screams. However, they could do nothing at the moment.

"Should we help?" Naruto lowered his voice.

"Nah. Let's go after the boss. It's a win-win situation for us. Either Momochi or Hatake will die."

Naruto frowned a bit. "And if neither dies?"

"We kill the two we were suppose to-and don't give me that look. You can't kill the Konoha-nin. It'd draw attention to this area, and we haven't exactly hidden ourselves from everyone."

Naruto nodded, finally. "Leader-sama is waiting to reveal Akatsuki to the world."

"Something like that."

More screams, and the sound of small objects piercing flesh. Kisame and Naruto abruptly ended their conversation, watching as a Hunter-nin appeared from the trees, picking up the body of the man. Masked, of course. The Senbon needles placed in the missing-nin hadn't hit a single vital point, yet there wasn't a heart beat.

"Isn't that-?

-the partner? Yeah. Their leading the Copy-nin off their trail." Kisame finished.

"Should we go after them?" Naruto peered over to the fish man.

He only shook his head. "Nah."

…

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura rushed forward, catching their sensei as he fell.

"What are we going to do?" She called to her teammates and Tazuna.

"My house in not too far from here." The bridge-builder told them. "We could bring him there."

The team nodded.

"Sai, help me. We're going to carry sensei. Sakura, you guard Tazuna." Sasuke commanded, already heaving their teacher up.

Sai jogged over, helping Sasuke. Sakura nodded stepping closer and grabbing a kunai her holster.

Shakily, she turned back to her two teammates, dragging along their sensei.

"W-What will we do if we get ambushed? Or attacked?" She stuttered.

Sasuke frowned, eyes scanning the area. "We'll fight. I suppose."

--

"What are we going to do?" Naruto frowned at his partner. "_You _were the one who said we shouldn't trail them! I lost their chakra trail-they must've done something to it!"

Kisame smiled. "Isn't it obvious?"

Naruto paused.

A sly grin made itself onto his face; it matched perfectly with Kisame's toothy one.

"We're trailing the Konoha brats, aren't we?"

"Yup."

In his tree, Naruto averted his eyes to the small flares of chakra that represented the worn out Gennin. They were low on strength-not that they had much of it to begin with-making their chakra little wisps in the ocean of natural chakra, blowing in the slight wind. Naruto wasn't sure if he could actually _see _it, but he could feel it shift.

And of course, he could also feel the chakra heading in there direction.

"You felt it-

-yeah."

Kisame had a habit of finishing his sentences and Naruto was starting to find it annoying. Not the time to voice his opinions though.

"There closing in, let's go-

-I'll go, you get over to Gatou and complete the mission."

Fuck. Naruto gritted his teeth. He did it again. Stupid fish head.

"Fine. Whatever."

Naruto leaned forward, catching himself mid-fall by pushing off the bark, Kisame heading in the other direction. Great. Fish breathe leaves himself to deal with the ninja, and makes Naruto do the dirty work and kill the stupid civilian. What a pain. The tower that the mission scroll says Gatou works in, must be at least a few miles away from where they were. He's sitting here, running his ass of to go kill someone who can't even _fight_ _back_, and Kisame is having the time of his life fending off _ninja_! It was starting to piss him off.

He squinted into the distance. "Is that the tower I'm supposed to go to?"

A large tower, its peek ascending into a dark sky. Guards-not ninja- were posted at the entrances? most weren't even really paying attention. No one had ever tried to break in, so why would they now?

"Hello." He called coolly.

The guards looked surprised, as he hopped out of the bushes as if he was nothing but a child.

Okay…he knew he was short…but not that short!

"Hey, kid." One cooed. "Are you lost? Do you want me to help you get back-?

The guard chortled out the last words, Naruto's fist already lodged into his chest. Blood spurted out of his mouth. Naruto swiftly dodged the bits, a disgusted look on his face. He didn't want _that _on his clothes. The other guard moved in, sword first, barreling into concrete as Naruto side-stepped the attack, still looking at his hand as if it was infected, blood dripping off of his fingertips.

As the other guard picked himself off the ground, stumbling towards him again with his sword, Naruto swiftly side kicked him in the head, still looking at the blood dripping off his fingertips.

_**When was the last time we had some of that?**_

Oh fuck.

The fox woke up already? He was supposed to be out for months…don't foxes sleep that long? Well, Great Demon Foxes did at least.

But, the oversized flea-bitten fur ball that he liked to call a chakra well did have a point. When was the last time he had had blood? A while ago, maybe a few weeks at best. Seemed like long years…

The fox was getting to him.

A taste wouldn't hurt…

Once his tongue touched the metallic sensation, he felt his body shudder before everything went into overdrive. Well, there were two guards, weren't there more? Fingers unnaturally pointy, he swept through the other guards surrounding the tower, licking his finger tips clean afterwards. Still not enough.

And, if there were guards outside, wouldn't there be some inside?

Waltzing into the corporate building, the secretary at the front desk was too busy propping her feet up and gossiping to notice him as he walked to the stairs, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. His clothes were dripping-Kisame, hell, Leader would be mad-but he wasn't to care. He was so engrossed in this sensation, wanting more of it each time it came in contact with his lips.

"HEY! What are you doing this is off limits-

The man didn't finish his sentence. And Naruto didn't like to play with food.

The hallway was smeared with patterns of crimson the bodies littered the floor. It stunk. Horribly. But Naruto happened to think the smell of fresh kill was appeasing to the nose. He looked into the glass window; Gatou was facing the window beneath him, talking on the phone to someone, waving his hands in a speaking manner. Naruto caught a glimpse of his eyes-they were red again.

"Gatou-san? Can I have a moment?" He called in his voice. It was sweet, like a child's.

The man didn't bother to even look up. "Sorry kid, busy-

The man didn't finish his sentence; Naruto had sliced off his head cleanly, the bone was swiped clean, no jagged edges of a job poorly done. The man on the other line was screaming in hysterics, he must have heard the slash and the blood spewing. Actually, it was still spewing, and the man was still screaming.

The vulpine grin matched the crimson eyes. "I was talking to you. It's impolite to not look at me."

He smashed the window open by simply pushing it with the palm of his hand, the clear pieces flickering in the sunlight as they fell upon puddles of blood and dead bodies.

He leapt, and he was gone.

…

--

--

--

A week. A fucking week. Seven days. God knows how many minutes and he probably was the only one who cared how many seconds were in a week. One of the people, who did care, apparently, was Kisame. Because, said fish breath, fish head, blue man, fish sticks, (the list went on and on) _retard _had decided to stay in Kiri for a little longer. Much to Naruto's evident displeasure.

First thing Naruto had made was clear if they did stay, explaining this to Leader would be from Kisame.

Second, Kisame took full responsibility when explaining to Leader why it took them a week to assassinate a civilian.

Third, everything that went awry because of this extra week was Kisame's fault, and thus, it would be his head that rolled when Leader was angry.

"So…explain to me again why we stayed an extra week?"

"Personal issues." Kisame grumbled, as they walked through the forest.

"That's not much of an excuse. Leader will be furious for sure."

"Doesn't matter."

"I think it matters. Leader's gonna maim you-

"He won't."

Naruto blinked. What was Kisame onto? "And why wouldn't he?"

"Because this is Momochi Zabuza. If we bring back his head we'll get a lot of money."

Ah.

Money. Of course. Step one in the pinky and the bran tactic Leader was so fond of would be to have enough money to take over the world. A stupid idea, it really was, but it was probable at least. Especially with so many amazing ninja on their side. A handful of tailed-beasts and the Kyuubi no Kitsune to boot.

"So how will we plan on catching him?"

"Simple. The copy-nin and his brats are going to fight with him at the bridge. We intervene once he uses that mist technique. We take his head, and that's the end of it."

"What about the accomplice?" Naruto added.

"Let the brat's fight him."

"And if Momochi doesn't use the mist technique?"

"Screw it. We go in anyways."

Naruto could only shrug at that. Kisame was reckless, yes, which was the reason of which Naruto had to ask these kinds of questions to make sure that at least one of them was thinking thoroughly. At the very least, he'd get to fight a B-Class bordering A-class missing nin. The demon container was itching for an S-class but Leader didn't think he was ready.

(A/N:I will be changing the plot a bit)

"There see! I'm psychic!"

He didn't look at Kisame, who was currently puffing his chest in pride.

The Copy-nin was currently fending off one of the attackers-Momochi, as the black haired brat was fighting off the ice-using accomplice. Naruto hadn't bothered to learn their names. If they weren't in the Bingo Book then they were pointless. Even Naruto was in there, it just said 'anonymous psychotic killer' instead of Uzumaki (Namikaze) Naruto.

The pink haired girl was standing a little father off, next to a piss old man.

As they watched silently, the other boy of the group came running up, barging into the fight with the Uchiha. A reckless move. It was a losing battle. The copy-nin wasn't strong enough, he hadn't recovered. Not even both the two boys were any match to the accomplice either. It hadn't taken long for Momochi to pull into a leading stride against the copy-nin, much to the kunoichi's displeasure as she screamed against it.

"Should we-

-yeah."

Kisame had did it again, but Naruto was already bursting through the under brush to reprimand the fish.

"That's the boy!" Sakura whispered in awe, as Naruto's messy blonde hair was seen as he dove into the mirrors.

"Who are you?!!?" Sasuke shouted at him, needles sticking out of him as he stood up feebly.

"That's a good question." Sai too, got up, mortally wounded, a senbon piercing close to his shoulder tendon.

Naruto said nothing.

He studied them, hands in his back pockets and he was leaning backwards, watching Haku in the mirrors with a lazy eye and a stretched grin. The two of them wouldn't last very much longer. Barely even alive. He heard Kisame laughing as Momochi and him crossed blades. Haku noticed it too, his position went defensive. Haku knew Naruto was no ordinary little boy.

"You're toying with them." He said simply, eyes moving to one of the reflections in the mirror. The right one.

Haku shivered. How had the boy known?

"What'd you mean?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed, he glared at the same mirror just to not look stupid.

Naruto studied the Uchiha's Sharingan with a bored eye. "Oh? A Sharingan? Haven't seen those in a while."

Okay…he saw Itachi's just last week…but that was a while, right?

A while? Sasuke was confused. This boy couldn't have been born before the massacre. And he wasn't from Konoha, he had no headband. But he was a ninja, judging from the way he waltzed in here to casually and identified Haku immediately. That only leads to one conclusion.

A growl erupted low in the Uchiha's throat. "WHERE IS HE?!?!"

He launched.

Naruto side-stepped.

Sasuke tumbled into the ground, jumping to his feet for another onslaught. "Where is my brother!???!?!?!"

Naruto dodged once again, a subtle frown on his features. "I'm not here to fight you." He said simply. "But I'll kill you if I have to."

Sasuke was about to attack again, but Sai held him down fast. He met the Roots member-to-be's eyes, meeting the scared and confused black eyes with his own eyes. His were sparkling, beautiful azure jewels with a bored expression on them. It was art, those eyes, Sai had realized.

Not even looking away from the two boys, Naruto punched the mirror so quickly that Haku doubled over, before quickly moving to another one. The glass shattered onto the floor, blood stained and sparkling like diamonds. The blood on Naruto's hand dripped off, and left not even scratches.

Naruto tore his eyes off of Sai's, once again pinpointing where Haku was and looking there.

"So…you're Haku…right?"

The boy in the mirror was surprised. "…yes."

"And you're that dude's accomplice?"

"Zabuza-sama?"

"That guy."

Haku's eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't speak so lightly of him. He is the great Demon of the Mist."

"Demon?" Naruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Silence.

…

Naruto's laughter shook the sanity out of him; and out of the three boys in the ice chamber with him.

"You want to see a real demon?"

His voice was hushed as he stared at the other three one by one, as if they had known each other for forever and were sharing some awesome secret about how not to catch cooties. Something that wasn't remotely dangerous, scary, frightening or gruesome. And it certainly didn't help that there was an odd red swirl mixing with the clear blue that made up his eye.

"Do you?"

They all shook there heads. The once blue tinted mist that had surrounded them dissipated. As soon as the clear background was exposed, it was soon surrounded in thin red smog. It seemed to be emanating from the sunny blonde boy in front of them.

"I think you do." Naruto grinned cheerily. "So I'll show you."

As soon as he said those words the crimson in his eyes that was once just a little swirl turned the whole eye red, deep russet slits of pupils staring them in the faces.

He moved faster than what they could see.

He leapt to the mirror that Haku was currently in, kicking the boy in the stomach and sending them descending to the ground in a heap. The ice user could barely register what was happening-everything was hazy. Red. Red eyes. Red ominous chakra, licking at him like flames. Red smog; that made it hard to breathe. Red. Red. Red. It was suffocating him.

Naruto had the boy pinned in seconds, a kunai held between his toes, poised at the boy's neck.

"You are his accomplice, are you not?"

Haku coughed blood. "Y-Yes…."

Blood. Splattering.

"Good. Just making sure I'm killing the right person."

However, Haku never lived to hear his answer, his neck sliced open by the kunai held by Naruto's feet. The blonde swung his leg up in a swift motion, weapon still held by his little toes. Eyes closed, a wide grin spreading over his face as he felt the warm blood on his skin.

He didn't bother to look at the two Gennin he may have just saved from death as they vomited all over the floor.

The flame that had turned into a long fifty some foot tail, that had been curled in a circle around the ice dome, now sprang to life, melting the ice into nothing but water as it swished around.

Naruto could only grin.

He strutted out of the ice dome-or the enormous puddle that it once was-to see how the fight between Kisame and Momochi was doing.

As he had suspected, the fish head was winning easily, he was, after all, the better of the swordsmen from Kirigakure.

"Yo!" He mockingly saluted to Kakashi, who was currently barely conscious as he sat on the concrete some distance from the fighting.

Kakashi's eyes widened.

No…it couldn't be…

"NARUTO!" He gaped.

Well, apparently conscious enough to remember him.

"Hatake Kakashi….right?" Naruto gave him a trademark vulpine grin, tail swishing behind him. "I read about you in the Bingo Book."

The Hatake could only sputter, not even concealing his evident shock. What that shock was from was another story entirely. Whether from the enormous fifty foot tail swishing around behind Naruto or the fact that Naruto was alive, and had just _killed _someone and was still smiling about it.

However, the questions churning around the copy-nin could not be answered as Naruto walked in front of him, swishing his fiery tail close to Kakashi's face as he did so.

"Hey, Momochi!"

Kisame and him stopped, turning to the boy waving at them.

"Heard you thought you were a demon, which one?"

Silence greeted that.

"Rokubi? Shukaku? Nekomata?"

No reply.

Still, Naruto continued. "Or maybe you aren't a demon at all? Maybe you're just an imposter."

"What-

Momochi swung his sword to face Naruto, eyes widened as he watched the looming tail swish back and forth way above him, he could feel the head from it all the way down on the ground. The dangerous chakra was engulfing Naruto, who was still smiling.

The blond stuck his hand out as if to greet him. "Kyuubi no Kitsune, I'm here to kill you."

Sudden and abrupt, the blonde leaped to the 'Demon of the Mist', swiping of a chunk of arm with his claws before flipping high into the air to land back on his feet a little away from Kakashi, fisting a clump of flesh.

"**AUUUGHH-**

"What the fuck?!?!" Kisame screamed at him over Momochi's wailing. "He was my kill!!!"

"So?" Naruto shrugged. "He's not dead yet."

Kisame only frowned. "It's freakin' boring to kill a wounded opponent."

"I'll do it for you!" Naruto offered pleasantly.

"Never mind."

Kisame had already charged at the other missing nin, who had stopped screaming to actually try to fight back, with one arm. The other was only handing by a few strings of flesh.

…

The bridge was left a massacre. No townspeople came, because there was no need. No army of extra people came from Gatou because there was no more Gatou.

However, there was a headless Zabuza, his head currently in a plastic Walmart bag because Kisame forgot a sack to keep it in.

As the two Akatsuki members began to leave, Naruto turned back to the horror stricken Gennin and Copy-nin.

"See ya later!" He called, as if he didn't just kill a boy and take a chunk of flesh off of Momochi's arm.

Naruto hadn't said it, but Kakashi was left to wonder.

Was he going to the Chuunin Exams?

_-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_Soooooooooooooo…Naruto's kinda…well he's short for one. A little shorter than he was in the anime/manga, so people underestimate him a lot. No Sora. No need. Chuunin Exams will be coming up soon._

_REVIEW_


	4. crimson: russet sun

_Soooo if you don't know I've been grounded for what seems to be an eternity, and have only finally been resurrected into the world of the net, so I had off Friday so I thought you guys would want an update. _

_Uh…quick update on Naru-chan. He isn't the same as last time, he's got that aloof I don't give a shit personality, and can be a bit childish at times, but he's a quick thinker and an impressive ninja. He knows a lot of techniques that I won't bother to list all of them, but the big ones are Katon Jutsu and Rasengan. He's currently working on Hirashin. Hero: Yondaime…sort of._

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Namikaze, or Uzumaki as it was normally, Naruto was already half way out the door of the Akatsuki base when he had suddenly sneezed. Strange, the weather was absolutely fine. Someone must be talking about him. Again. It had been happening a lot recently, he wasn't allergic to anything, there weren't any feathers stuck up his nose, it was the only probable solution was that someone was saying something about him.

But of course, he probably instigated it. He directly told Konoha shinobi he-the demon container of the great Kitsune-would be entering the exams hosted in that city.

"Chuunin Exams…" He groaned to himself. Would he be taking them?

He was already Gennin; he had to be to be registered as a ninja. Pein had made sure that the local Academy for Ninja let him take the Gennin exam, making him technically an Amegakure shinobi. However, the moment he got his hitai-ate he had sliced the symbol cleanly in half. Ever since then, he had been in the bingo book as nothing more than a psychologically unstable shinobi of Amegakure origins. Nothing more nothing less.

"Thinking about the Chuunin Exams?"

Naruto wasn't startled at all by the voice. The Uchiha had probably been eavesdropping.

"Itachi?" No suffix. The Uchiha twitched. "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm accompanying you on your next mission."

Still babysitters? He was twelve years old, and had probably killed more people than people he knew by name.

"The old man's gone senile." Naruto wedged a finger in his ear with an abrupt yawn. "I don't understand why he still makes you guys come with me-I can handle it fine."

"Apparently he thinks otherwise."

With that, the Uchiha strode ahead of him, tipping himself off the small battering cliff and down into the forests with a fluid motion. Naruto took a look at the door behind him, before walking a few steps and following in step.

"Jerk."

That's why he hated working with the family-murdering Uchiha (not that he really gave a damn whether or not Itachi enjoyed his family or not) the man never had anything pleasant to say-ever. He was always barking out emotionless commands, and saying things to get Naruto riled up for whatever reason, be it to annoy him or to get amused himself.

They had sped off quickly into the direction of Cloud, officially avoiding all contact with Konoha. The two combed through the countries bordering Konoha, always staying right on the other side of the border, Naruto personally thought it was to piss of the ANBU on the other side who were just waiting for Itachi to come back to the other sided.

And yet, they still managed to get to there destinations out in the outer regions of Kumo by sunrise the next day.

The sun had just peeled over the highest mountains like a glistening oversized orange when they stopped their high-speed travel.

"So what's the mission about now?" Naruto yawned.

"Assassination of one of Kumo's latest political figures."

"Oh." Politics. He didn't want to know.

And so, Uzumaki Naruto completed yet another boring mission.

--

--

--

His hand burned.

He hadn't had a mission in quite a while, and if he had some, they were extremely boring and only the assassination of lesser A or B-class missing-nin. Nothing extraordinary, so nothing that Naruto wanted to know. Instead, he sat, well-kneeled, in the Akatsuki's inner field, clutching his hand brokenly waiting for Kyuubi to heal it. Soon enough, the skin began to slowly regenerate, peeling itself as if by magic.

His breathing slowed.

He raised his hand to examine it. Kyuubi had done a great job.

"Damn it." He swore to himself. "I still can't keep it up for very long."

The Rasengan was turning to be a hassle.

He had practiced it for maybe a few hours now, trying to spin the small sphere with enough pressure and quickness for it to sustain itself for longer periods of time. It wasn't working particularly well. The ball of energy quickly began to override itself, and usually blow up in his face. Dangerous, but with Kyuubi his skin regenerated and his cuts closed themselves.

The Yondaime…Namikaze Minato…Naruto really wanted to know who he was. From the humorous little inputs surrounding the text, little things that the Yondaime had added to the scroll, they gave the affect that he was a much laid back kind of man. Someone of great caliber, apparently, but also very funny, down to Earth kind of guy. Someone with a funny laugh and a really broad smile. Someone who everyone just looked up to.

For an odd reason, Naruto wanted to meet him.

He always wondered what his father was like-would he have the same hair colors as him? Eyes? Smile?-but…the Akatsuki Leader was never meant to fit the shoe. Yes, he was an amazing man of amazing skill, and yes, he could lead a bunch of misfit and powerful S-Class criminals, but could he be Naruto's father? That was something he would need a hell of a lot of work on.

Naruto hated it when people would ask him about it. Say that Pein was his father. He always thought that the place should be fit by an amazing person that Naruto could look up to and gladly say, "Yeah, that's my father". Pein just seemed like a harsh caretaker.

"Ugh." Naruto pulled his head onto his knees.

He needed to stop.

Picking himself off, and dusting off the dirt, he picked up his scroll and headed out.

Those hallways were once again dark, and barely lit, a stark contrast to the omniscient light that filtered through the cracks in the training grounds. His steps were the only things to echo the gloomy hallways, the only thing that ever seemed to keep him company. He didn't bother the other members-what was the point? He kept to himself, especially in the base. You never know what you meet in there.

He was about to turn a corner when he bumped into another friendly face.

"Yo squirt. How's life going for you…yeah?"

Deidara was as cheery as ever, wearing standard shinobi clothing other than the Akatsuki cloak.

Naruto returned the smile. "Don't call me squirt, jackass. And pretty damn boring."

They walked down the halls, Naruto abandoning his thought of wandering aimlessly to follow Deidara wherever he was going.

The art man laughed at that. "Kid, you have an awesome mission coming up, your life isn't boring…yeah."

"Mission?" Naruto raised a brow.

Deidara shot him a look of surprise. "You didn't know? You _are_ dumb, dork. You're going to the Chuunin Exams."

Despite his growl, Naruto was curious. "I am?"

"Yeah." The older blond nodded, as they turned another corner. "Leader-sama's got some deep history with this one guy-uh…Orochimaru I think. And some shit happened that I never got into and Orochimaru left."

"Orochimaru?" Naruto tasted the name. He thought of the picture in Leader's room. "What does he look like?"

"Gross." Deidara answered immediately. "Sickly pale, weird yellow eyes. Long black hair-that dude seriously needed to wash it too—

Deidara rambled on about how utterly gross the man was, but Naruto had a picture now. He was the man that Naruto didn't know about in the photo. Orochimaru, huh? He doubted that Leader really went way back with this guy, maybe only a few months. Naruto might not know Pein like he was his real son but he knew enough to know that the people Pein knew from his old, old past he'd never hurt.

"But anyways," Deidara took a deep breath. "Orochimaru's going to infiltrate the exams in Konoha this year, and in all the havoc Leader-sama wants you to go and kill'em."

"I see."

He didn't but he might as well say so.

They turned into the kitchen.

"Want anything to eat?"

Naruto nodded. "Ramen."

"Is that all you eat?"

"Pretty much."

It was then that Naruto decided. He was going to get that god damn Rasengan down, and maybe even the Hirashin by the time the Chuunin Exams rolled around in a few weeks.

--

--

--

"Sensei!"

…

"Seeennnnsssseeeeiiiii"

…

"Wake up dammit!" Sakura kicked the tree there lazy sensei was currently residing in.

The Jounin only leaped down casually, signature book still in hand.

"Yes Sakura?" He smiled behind the mask.

The girl fumed. "You need to train us for the Chuunin Exams! In a week. A _week._ We need to know more."

Sasuke and Sai nodded.

Kakashi sighed. "You need to rest; it'll be too harsh on your bodies if you overwork them and then don't have enough energy for the Exams."

"Then what should we do?" Sai asked, leaning on the bridge.

"Go home. Sleep. Wake up early and come back here."

"That's it?" Sakura whined. "No fancy jutsu or awesome techniques?"

"What can I say?"

The three Gennin were thoroughly disappointed as they watched their sensei retreat into the foliage behind the red bridge. There was only silence, the river flowing under was the only noise that greeted them as it was clear their sensei had just dismissed them and no longer wanted to have to put up with their incessive whining and boring D-Class missions. Lucky sensei, he got to lounge around and read his porn while they went to the exams.

It was unsaid, but as the trio split up after Sakura asked Sasuke and was promptly refused, they all had the same thought.

Was that boy going to be there?

Naturally…Sakura chided herself. She had nothing to worry about…Sasuke was on her team, right?

Now she was unsure.

She had been taking care of Sasuke after his fight with that Ice-nin, when she had turned around after a lot of screaming and yelling—gore all around, the boy had left with an odd looking fish man. Sasuke and Sai later explained that the boy had brutally murdered the two missing-nin that even Kakashi had trouble beating. Kakashi! The infamous copy-nin known around the shinobi world, and much more importantly, their_sensei_. How could someone best him? Apparently someone could, this blond could.

"Sai…" She called uncertainly. "About that blond boy—

"I don't know if he'll be in the Chuunin Exams, Sakura." The black haired boy cut her off.

"I-I know that. But, about your fight, what happened again?"

Sai resisted the urge to rub his temples.

"I already told you-he came out of nowhere, killed the guy that was about to kill _us_, then ran off to fight Momochi. I hadn't watched the rest, but Kakashi-sensei seemed pretty perturbed."

Sakura shifted her feet nervously. "So I should ask Kakashi-sensei about it then?"

Sai could only nod, hoping Sakura would leave him to be with himself. And she did, albeit slowly and rather cautiously, tentatively taking steps back until her back was pressed against the wooden fencing. She was really interested, and tempted to do so, however she had a feeling Kakashi would just flake on her and she was better off waiting until the Chuunin Exams.

The way the boy had come into their lives so quickly was what perturbed her.

"What am I doing?" She frowned at herself. "I should go home and rest! Just like Kakashi-sensei said to do!"

Somehow, she doubted she'd get much sleep that night.

-

-

-

-

_The Advanced Logics of Theoretical and Philosophical Jutsu_ Part I

Naruto scoffed. "Hate to see part two."

The book, he realized, was filled with extreme and irritably illogical ideals and stuff that didn't even begin to make sense to him with its vast words of quantitative theory that stretched from one page to the next. However, there was not much else the blond could do but suck it up and read the text, whether it be sentence by sentence or word by word. Sucking up, as he soon found out, was beginning t get difficult.

But…if he wanted to even understand the Hirashin and it's difficult and various ideals, he'd have to get through this.

He had a two or so weeks left, and he already had the Rasengan down.

This Hirashin however, was proving to make itself more of an annoyance then a use.

There was just too much theory put into it than actual activities that it was getting extremely boring. The Rasengan was always action packed. It was always about bigger and better, the more chakra the more cooler and explosive the technique would get. That's why he liked it. The Hirashin sounded cool too, like teleportation to the extreme. But, with all great things comes long and boring explanations.

So with his head dunked into a book, Naruto began to read on advanced jutsu.

He sighed and blew a raspberry.

This book was five hundred pages of crap. It was all theories of impossible things like duplications—and not Bunshin. Lifetime duplications. Immortality, extremely out there sealing, teleporting from one side of the world to the next, dipping into parallel universes, virtually a lot of things he didn't understand.

When he had got permission into Pein's library, he was ecstatic.

He realized soon enough that it wasn't as interesting as he had first thought it to be.

However, he'd soon find out that many of the things covered in this book could actually be used. Most already being unraveled by great minds like the Akatsuki Leader, as farfetched as many of them may seem.

_When using extreme transportation of this caliber, it is of importance to remember that the tug of the pressure is full bodied, and as thus, it is better to be in an upright position than that of a small spherical shape. With many theoretical jutsu, there must be another mass that is somehow directly related to the person, whether from sealing or actual physical relation—_

"Auuugghh…"

He leaned onto the wall behind him, in the little sitting area in the library.

Nothing but the silence of ancient oak book shelves dusty and olden greeted him. Not even the window next to him with a great view of the ground could cheer the dreary atmosphere of the room. The rest of it was so dark and bleak, the shelves towering over him with there olden books that were probably even more uninteresting and hard to read that the one he had now.

He wouldn't put it past Leader to have stolen scrolls from across the sea somewhere in here, just waiting for him to try them out.

The thought was tempting.

But he'd have to stick with the boring repetition of high speed transportation and teleportation jutsu and sealing that he was currently working on, however boring the subject at hand may be. He'd rather be out doing a mission, even if some other member had to tag along.

"I hope you are fairing well."

Naruto jumped, nearly landing on the floor.

Pein loomed over him, his expression blank as it always had been.

"Not…exactly." He tried to wipe the drool off of his cheek. "It's…a bit harder than I expected."

He expected a sardonic berate from the man, however, he only nodded. "Most of the Yondaime's work was very theoretical, except for the Rasengan, of course. But even there, there is some theory."

"I'm a bit…at lost." Naruto blanched. "This book doesn't make sense."

Leader tossed him kunai, odd and three-pronged.

"What are these?"

"Specialized kunai," The man sighed. "I do suppose you are more of a kinesthetic learner than a visual."

"Is this permission to practice the technique?"

"In its simplest of forms. I don't want the training grounds a mess."

He leaped from the couch. "Okay."

The Leader strode into the long aisle of shelves, his cloak smoothing out the floor behind him in an elegant way matching his walk. "The Yondaime…I do suppose it would be quite the opportunity to debate theoretical jutsu with him."

Naruto hadn't heard him, bounding off in the direction of the training ground the moment he got the OK signal.

"Alas," The man chuckled to himself, pulling an olden book from the shelves. "I'm sure Naruto will be able to one day."

…

Naruto dodged into another corner, the scroll for Hirashin in his hand, and the other was in the midst of stuffing the kunai into his pouch. As he turned into the other hallway, he nimbly dodged the darker side of Zetsu's head, dashing into the darkness as it screamed profanities at him and the other side tried to calm it down. The kind of occasional run-ins that Naruto had gotten used to these past days, actually, years.

"Hell yeah!"

Finally, he was getting to try out an awesome technique, and not boring crap from Kumo or Suna that wasn't even worth the A-class ranking they put on it. Something that was actually interesting and not just a various jumble of handseals and a pitiful bang.

This, was something he'd use.

--

--

-

"Wait…_me_?"

The office was more crowded than usual. Usually, when Naruto came in with his usual exuberant manner, there was just Leader to reprimand him for his onslaught of emotions that weren't certainly shinobi worthy. Not that he cared much about Leader's opinion on such trivial things on the first place. And he certainly wasn't going to start now. But when Naruto strutted into the office, there were already people in there, and so he couldn't annoy the Leader today.

Flanking either side of the door were Deidara and Tobi. Deidara was the one who was gaping ridiculously, and Tobi was staring out into the ceiling with his mask hiding away any other facial expression.

"What's going on?" Naruto picked his ear, rolling his eyes.

"Your mission, and this is one that I can't afford you messing up on."

"What do you mean by that—?

"Naruto-kun." Pein's voice was sharp. "I don't need trivial back talk. This is an important mission that I don't want little petty mistakes endangering. There is a good reason why Deidara and Tobi will be accompanying you on this."

Deidara nodded. "I'd really like to know that…yeah."

"Tobi would like to know too!"

"Now Naruto and Tobi aren't registered as S-class criminals yet, and a thus, they are my most liable choices for use. Naruto, I don't want your loud and ridiculous mouth screwing up the mission because you couldn't keep it shut and end up saying something that may be useful to Konoha."

Naruto sputtered. "What?! I would never—wait. Konoha?"

"Chuunin Exams."

"Huh?"

"…are you serious?"

"But I already am_Jounin_!"

His look silenced them all with its intensity.

"Deidara is on this mission because relationships with Iwa and Konoha are currently tense, and Iwa isn't stupid enough to give away its latest missing-nin. And I have already covered the fact that Naruto and Tobi aren't registered."

Naruto grumbled, but didn't voice his opinions. "So when do we leave?"

"Tomorrow at seven. Get there by noon."

He threw the mission scroll at them, which Deidara caught while they turned to leave.

They walked through the halls together, until the hallway split to their rooms.

"Dammit, I can't believe I'm stuck with you two."

"Can it, brat. I'm not happy I have to listen to your sorry ass whine all month…yeah."

"Tobi thinks we should all get along now…"

"Yeah, well no one cares what Tobi thinks right now…yeah!"

"Neither do we care about you, Deidara."

"Oh fuck you—

They split into separate corridors, their voices still carrying into the hallways even though they could no longer see each other. Which, was also natural in the depths of the Akatsuki lair, that had once been a dreary and silent place filled with extremely dangerous persons ready to kill anyone at a mere footstep. Now, it was still a dreary place, but silent? Hell no. Not with Naruto riling up every single other member within a radius of eighteen meters.

The bickering still hadn't stopped when they met next morning.

"How's it hanging, Barbie?" Naruto waved as he exited the compound, ramen in hand.

Deidara scowled. "Not well, no thanks to you…yeah."

"It's not my fault if you've got your panties in a twist."

"Why don't you learn to shut up?"

"I don't see a point."

Tobi stood in the middle with a kind of nervousness that he usually had when Naruto and Deidara glare daggers at each other. Even as they tumbled off the cliffs and into the forestry did they still kept eye contact, one growling and the other growling while eating ramen. And still, thirty minutes later, they still were yet to stop.

It was at this point did the swampy foliage of Amegakure give way to the platonic trees that uprooted themselves on the Konoha border.

"Uh…Tobi thinks we're in Konoha now…" He said timidly.

"That's great Tobi." He still glared, even with ramen gone.

"And uh…Tobi also thinks that there it an ANBU squad coming closer."

"Tobi, please, just—what?!" Deidara immediately leapt to the left, his two comrades following in suit.

"Thanks, mud-for-brains, now we're gonna get caught." Naruto grumbled.

"This isn't my fault! And its _clay_ not mud."

Naruto grinned stupidly. "You just agreed that you had clay-for-brains—

"Oh shut up."

"Tobi knows how to get away!" He told them. "Follow Tobi!"

The masked boy darted into the trees, and into a ravine at the bottom of the forest. The large roots covered them from sight, and the ANBU flew right over them and onto the other side of the ravine. Naruto sighed in relief. Thank god for Tobi, who somehow miraculously knew of this and they wouldn't have to face ANBU and bring suspicion to themselves. Wait a minute…

…how did Tobi know this was here?

"Hey Tobi…are you from Konoha?" Naruto asked, curiously.

"Actually, Tobi, are you? …yeah?" Deidara was curious too.

Tobi seemed rigid for a moment as they darted back into the branches of the trees with skill and precision. If they could see his eyes, they'd notice the confused look that swirled in them.

"Uh…Tobi doesn't know…" The boy sighed lamely. "Tobi doesn't remember anything from before Leader-sama brought him to Akatsuki."

"That sucks." Words of wisdom from Naruto.

"Yeah."

The boy smiled. "But Tobi doesn't mind! Tobi likes Akatsuki, Akatsuki is like Tobi's family!"

Naruto grinned. "Cool, I guess."

"Okay, all this mush is great and all, but we need to shut up and pretend to be really stupid Gennin. The gates are right there…yeah."

They slowed down, and walked into the clearing like Gennin who didn't know how to use high speed chakra enhanced travel. The two Chuunin rolled about lazily on their posts, chatting aimlessly with a pointlessness that could only belong to carefree souls who really didn't know what was about to befell them. That was of course, if Naruto and Deidara could shut up long enough for them to get past.

"Wonderful plan here," Naruto sent a look to Deidara as if to give a point. "I make a Kage Bunshin, we sneak up, I make the Bunshin run off and then we're in."

"That's stupid…yeah."

"So?" The younger blond retorted. "_Their _stupid too."

Tobi scratched the back of his head. "That's mean, Naruto-sempai!"

"Yeah well," He griped. "I never said I was nice."

He made the hand seal for a Kage Bunshin, and the other saluted him mockingly before heading out to the two Chuunin in a much too exuberant manner for Naruto's taste. However, being a loud idiot would certainly make them even less aware already, so off the other three went toiling up the wall as the Bunshin immersed the idiotic Chuunin into pointless conversation.

The wall was probably the easiest of their problems, but if they had stayed the Chuunin would have done a background check and they might've found out who Deidara was from his passport.

The Bunshin wandered into the forest, dispelling himself, and the Chuunin were none the wiser.

"They don't have a clue." Naruto told them breezily with his usual arrogance as he regained the memories.

Deidara unraveled the mission scroll as they climbed onto the other side, reading the contents over slowly.

"So, we go left."

Naruto raised a brow. "Is this a treasure hunting map?"

"Don't be an idiot…yeah." The other blond grunted. "I'm finding directions to the hotel."

There was silence, as the trio of probably Akatsuki's stupidest when it came to things like these, sat and waited for Deidara to figure out where they were going. He'd look at the mission scroll, then back at the map. Sometimes, he'd even turn the map upside down and see if he could read it better, which made no sense to Naruto, and he decided it was about time to voice his opinions.

"Hey mud-boy, we can't stand around all day, where're we going?"

"Uh…" Deidara switched the map again. "Some hotel called The Leaf. That's original…yeah."

"Oh! Oh! Tobi knows where that is! Tobi can show you!" The black haired boy sped off in front of them, the two blonds sending a look at the boy before back at each other, and then sped off.

"You think he knows where he's going…yeah?" Deidara asked while sprinting.

Naruto shrugged. "I seriously think he used to live here. I don't even know where that is."

"Eh…whatever. If he knows where he's going, why stop him…yeah?"

"Sure."

They ran like civilians, to not draw attention to themselves. No one ran on rooftops unless they were ANBU or weren't supposed to be there. And, technically, they were just Gennin here for the Chuunin Exams and weren't supposed to know any high ranking techniques or skills. What a pain, a certain blond thought, what's the point in learning all this cool stuff if you can't show it off?

"Here!"

Tobi skidded to a halt in front of a rather spacious looking hotel room that ascended into the sky with it's seemingly thousands of floors. Certainly, a little more noteworthy than any other hotel Akatsuki went to when on a mission, but, they only went to lame ones because if they didn't it was easier to catch them.

"Not too shabby." Naruto commented lightly. "Leader knows how to book a hotel."

"Let's just get in." Deidara pushed past him.

The inside looked as nice as they outside. Nice open ceilings that were definitely over forty feet, a crystal chandelier as the center piece with lights decorating it. There was a pianist in the corner, but the roar of people was enough to drown it out easily. The hotel main room was crowded with people.

Most of them, Naruto noticed with a snort, were little Gennin with beaming faces and extravagantly rich parents standing next to them. And most of the Gennin, Naruto also realized, were actually his age, which annoyed him a bit. He really didn't want to be seen as 'weak' just because he was younger than the majority of people going to the Chuunin Exams. Dammit, he could kill them all if he wanted!

"These people are giving me a headache-can we just go to our rooms?" The blonde rudely but in to whatever conversation Deidara and Tobi were having.

"Fine, fine," The other blonde grumbled. "Whatever…yeah."

The moved to the elevator shafts, laid over with plush red and gold carpets and a small table with flowers resting on them. There were a couple of Gennin standing near the door, a blonde girl, a rather fat boy, and another leaning on the wall. The girl whispered to the other boy, her voice loud enough for Naruto's sensitive ears to pick up, but he really, _really _didn't care.

The elevators opened slowly with a ding, and in the awaiting Gennin came, along with the supposed Gennin that Naruto, Deidara, and Tobi were playing as.

"Why are we _here_Ino," One boy groused. "What a bother."

"Because! I want to see Sasuke!" The blond hissed.

The other boy, who was eating chips, raised a brow. "Why would Sasuke be here?"

"Kakashi's here, so his teams here." She said pointedly. "I dunno why Kakashi-san is here, but where he goes, his team follows!"

The rest of the conversation was at loss, as they all exited onto the same floor.

The blonde girl, Ino, sprinted ahead of the two boys and dashed into another hallway. With a squeal of "Sasuke!" and screeching from another girl, chaos was already ensuing on Naruto's floor, the unordinary part of this, however, was that it wasn't Naruto who was making the disturbance. And he certainly didn't want to get into this one, stupid Gennin and there stupid ideals of reality. These were shinobi?

"Where's the room Tobi?" He yawned.

"Uh…L16." The boy held the card, head swishing about. "I don't know where that is though…"

Deidara pointed to the signs, already ahead of them. "Look at the numbers on the door, idiot…yeah."

And so as they turned the corner, they realized what the fuss was all about. The blonde girl they were in the elevator with was literally pounced on another boy with spiky black hair, the other two boys that were in the elevator lagging on behind, in no hurry. The girls screeched and clawed at each other, banshee calls echoing through the regal hotel. There was another black haired boy some feet away wedging himself closer to their sensei inch by inch, their sensei though, with his back turned in the other direction chatted up a pretty looking lady.

It was the pink hair that caught Naruto's attention.

"Oh fuck."

"What?" Deidara turned around.

"Let's go another way." Naruto said quickly. "Now."

They turned down the corner, as Sakura-in the midst of clawing at Ino- saw the blonde hair and the blue eyes that she remembered strangely.

That's him!

As the trio turned the corner, Sakura sprinted over to them, knocking Shikamaru and Chouji out of the way and ignoring the questioning calls from her rival, and the grunts from Sasuke. She barreled into the elevator hallway, only to find that the mysterious blond that she remembered had already exited. Damn, he had gotten away, she was so close that time too.

"Oi! Forehead I'll take him then!" Ino swaggered, clutching Sasuke protectively.

Sakura however, did not respond to the jeers.

"Uh-Forehead? I've got him y'know. I guess you don't want him then—

"Sasuke." Her voice wasn't screechy.

For once, the Uchiha took her seriously, about to growl at her when he noticed she wasn't squealing. "What?"

"That boy…remember?" Her eyes didn't leave the elevator hallway. "He's…he's here."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

--

---

--

-

Naruto yawned and stretched his arms over his head.

He had recently just toppled out his hotel door open recently realizing his other two teammates hadn't bothered to wake him and proceeded to leave for the exams already, and thus, leaving him sleeping away. They were probably laughing too, at least, Deidara was, Tobi probably was yet to notice what they did. Stupid teammates, they weren't even actually his _teammates_ so to speak. He barely worked with either of the in Akatsuki anyways.

"I better not be fucking late!"

Instead of taking the elevator, he climbed out the window and landed with a thud on the roof top some feet below.

Making sure to get the direction of the academy, he leapt off onto another rooftop in what he supposed was the right direction. Konoha was abuzz, even as he traveled quickly he could here everything. Most of it was about the Chuunin Exams anyways. Naruto didn't understand why they were so interesting. Gennin on there first step to Chuunin? Who cared? Now Jounin to ANBU, that'd be a little more interesting.

He skidded to a halt at the academy entrance.

Looking at the doors, he felt a way of nausea hit him in the face.

How long had it been since he'd seen these doors? Since he was the little boy who couldn't defend himself, the weakling who couldn't even have the strength to kill a god damn villager. A villager! Now, he wouldn't even give it a thought. They deserved to die anyways, the bastards.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts, heading into the academy.

The walls were familiar, the stairs, class rooms. Hell, he could remember the Sandaime showing him around with his smile on his face, pointing to the teachers, even though they smiled at him and scowled at Naruto. Sandaime…if there was anyone Naruto missed from Konoha it would be him.

But somehow, it hurt to think about that.

He wasn't even looking, turning a corner and landing in a pair of breasts.

"HENTAII!!!"

He was smacked upside the head.

"Ow, ow! Sorry!" He frowned. Who the fuck did this person think she was?

"Better be!" The woman growled, smoothing her purple hair. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Eh?"

Before even noticing her purple hair or rambunctious attitude, even the fishnet that barely even covered her boobs, he noticed that her collar was moved a bit. And there was a curse seal under it. A curse seal…a prototype too. He remembered that the information dealing with Orochimaru said that he was creating some sort of curse seal that looked a bit like that. Well, there was only one person that she could be.

Especially with a curse seal.

"Oh…Mitarashi Anko?" He blinked.

"How'd you know that?"

"Ah…the hair." He lied smoothly. "Sorry."

"Wait a sec kid."

Inwardly pissed, he turned around with that silly grin that-to most- would have told he was pissed beyond repair and it would be wise to step away from him. But, to people who didn't know him, it just looked like a silly and sheepish smile from a twelve year old boy.

"What?"

She threw a scroll at him. "Give this to the Chuunin Guards standing outside the room, okay? It's a genjutsu by the way, but since you have this I guess I can tell you."

He caught it, looking strangely at it before heading off.

"See ya later squirt!"

Squirt dammit…that lady was really, really pushing it. Too bad she was Konoha, or else he would have killed her already. She was infuriating but, well, now he had an easy way to slack off and get a free be into the room without having to dispel the Genjutsu and end up having everyone in the room surprised at his talents and then he'd be under the watchful eye of talent spotters. God…what a hassle!

Walking up the stairs, he heard whispers from the many Gennin standing near the door, the two Chuunin guards there too.

There seemed to be some sort of animosity between two Gennin.

One, he noted from the fan, was an Uchiha. Oh…that must mean he's Itachi's little brother. Great. He was taking an exam with someone whom Itachi claimed-was incompetent in mostly every category. However, that coming from Itachi could be claimed as both a compliment and an insult, because he says that about _everyone_ anyways.

The other, he noted on a more duller note, was a Hyuga. With potential, he could see from the stance, but still, he didn't want to get into something with someone as hard headed as a Hyuga. The old man Hokage used to always gripe about the Hyuga on his council, how absolutely stubborn and prideful they were about everything—especially their eyes-and if you ever try to tease them about it, it usually ends in disaster.

Either way, Naruto would rather steer clear of their death glares, but they were blocking the Chuunin.

Damn.

Luck really didn't like him right now.

He pushed his way through the crowd with a sigh, watching as the Uchiha and the Hyuga's glare tightened, if that was even possible at the moment.

It was sudden when it happened.

Sasuke launched forward, curving backward to give a powerful kick to the head that could probably shatter the skull with a fell swoop. The Hyuga had his hands curled so that two fingers stuck out, aiming for the most vital of Sasuke's chakra points, maybe even one that could kill. Naruto didn't know, he wasn't exactly watching that closely. He was though, watching the Chuunin with an intensity, not even bothering to register what he just did.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

Neji's eyes widened.

Somewhere in the crowd, Sakura drew a long gasp as she spotted the sunshine dappled hair that the boy had.

Naruto had caught Sasuke's foot easily, clasping onto his ankle with an intensity to shatter the bone. He had also caught Neji's wrist, a bit too hard though, as his hand hung almost limply in his hand.

Sakura screamed in panic from the crowd. "Sasuke!!!!"

"Hey…you guys are the Chuunin on guard duty or whatever…right?" Naruto had a lazy look to him.

The Chuunin gulped. "U-Uh, yeah."

"Good!" Naruto dropped the appendages, not watching as the two boys fell to the ground in pain.

He pulled a scroll out of his back pocket.

"Some Anko lady told me to give this to you and just let me in." He grinned ear-to-ear.

"Ehm…who should I say delivered it?" He asked again.

Naruto raised a brow. "Well…Naruto, I guess."

The surprised Chuunin let him in immediately, leaving gaping Gennin behind.

Quickly, he spotted Deidara and Tobi, they were close to the window, looking ominous enough that none of the other teams got too close to them. There were Academy Gennin (as they were so dubiously named) standing around the center, their voices loud and there actions spoke that they were still very wet behind the ears. He made his way through the crowd without another thought. Until a different kind of smell his nose.

He breathed in once, deeply.

"What the hell are you doing…yeah?" Deidara scoffed.

Naruto didn't return the banter, his eyes steeled across the room trying to look for the offending odors purpose.

"Uh…dork? Seriously, what are you looking at…yeah?"

"There." Naruto pointed.

The team was created of one boy with an oddly shaped hat, it resembled a bit like black cat ears. The other, was even more stranger, with blond spiky hair that was sticking out from four pigtails, two at the top and two at the bottom. But the real issue, was the red head standing between them. There was kanji that was too small for Naruto to read at the distance tattooed on his head, and his green eyes were lifeless.

He didn't need another sniff to know that was a Jinchuuriki.

"Ah dammit."

"What?"

"That redhead over there's Shukaku's Jinchuuriki-(another sniff)-and he's having bloodlust too." Naruto informed with another wiff at the air.

"Should Tobi think that is bad?"

"Nah, we're good." Naruto waved him off. "If he tries anything I'll get Kyuubi to scare him off. But for everyone else…

They took a look around the room. It went unsaid, but Naruto new that it was true. For everyone else, it was a bigger issue.

-------

"My name's Kabuto." The silver haired Gennin 'from' Konoha greeted them with a smile.

"What the hell do you want?" Sasuke's voice was as toneless as always.

"Just offering serves." Kabuto chided them easily.

"How?" Ino screeched from over Sasuke's shoulder.

Kabuto held up a card, switching it around his fingers. "These are Shinobi cards; they show the stats of any Shinobi in here. I told you, I've been taking the exam for a long time, I know mostly everyone here. Anyone you'd care to look up?"

"I've got one." Sasuke stepped forward. "Rock Lee."

Kabuto knelt on the ground, flipped the card, and showed them Rock Lee's picture. He read out everything on the card, before flipping it back into the deck.

"Anyone else?"

"I've got another one."

Everyone looked at Sasuke.

He took a deep breathe. "Naruto."

Kabuto raised a brow. "Just…Naruto?"

"We don't exactly know his full name." Sakura but in. "Can you still find the person without the full name?"

The silver-haired Gennin shrugged, pushing up his glasses. "I suppose I could try."

He shoved a hand into his deck, rolling them around before tugging out the card. His face grew very stern, as he moved the card closer to take a better look at it, as if he couldn't believe his data either. Team Seven –at least Sakura and Sasuke, Sai was only mildly interested—took shaky nervous breaths as Kabuto held the silence.

"Well?" Sasuke broke the silence irritably.

"I may have been misinformed." Kabuto frowned in a grave voice as he studied the card. "Is he a blond and blue-eyed fellow?"

"Yeah." Sakura piped up.

"Then…from what my card says…he's dead."

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_Yeah so…I dunno why Deidara and Tobi, but I figured Tobi because technically, isn't he Obito's body and Madara's mind? And the Tobi we know—the one who goes "I'm Tobi and I'm a good boy!"—isn't really his personality right? _

_And Deidara, because well…he's just fun to have with Naruto._

_But ah, I ramble. REVIEW. I mean it. I'll give you candy cookies. _


	5. crimson: bloody rose

_Sorry if I didn't put this in the last chapter, but Deidara has dyed hair dirty blond, and bluish green eyes. And yes, this chapter is complete with Hidan screen time and a bit of Sora input!_

_AN: For those of you who dislike Sora/don't want an OC, I managed to keep it minimal (: _

* * *

It was apparent that Naruto was enjoying himself. He hadn't even written a single word down on his paper, after it took him seconds to understand that the object of the test was to get away with cheating. Deidara had noticed it too—looking odd with his brown hair that was dyed that way, but still grinning wolfishly in a very Deidara way. Although Tobi was yet to realize anything of the sort, having a mental breakdown as he struggled for answers to near impossible questions.

"Number 18! You're out! Take your team with you!" Ibiki's voice ran shrill.

Naruto groaned; that must've been the fifth team or so.

Deidara sent him a look—then at the clock. They only had maybe five minutes left or so. Thank god. He had done nothing but doodle subsequently on the edges of his paper for the last fifty-five minutes. And they were spectacular, if you asked him. But that was probably just him anyways.

Deidara, playing with a lock of oddly colored brown hair that was till messily streaked with blond, looked up as Ibiki stood up.

Finally, it was over.

"Now, I'll give you the tenth question. You can either try to answer this, or leave now and lose all your chances at becoming a Chuunin forever."

Half the room gasped.

Naruto frowned. Konoha didn't have authority over all the other nations like that. Who was this man fooling? Regulations spoke that if an examinee was disqualified for any reason, he or she was allowed to participate in the next exam in another country. Or is fire country deciding this rule indefinitely and is willing to face the wrath of the rest of the continent?

But he didn't say anything, simply staring at the man with an odd looking forehead with aloof hooded eyes.

"I-I think I'm gonna go."

"Yeah…me too…"

Whispering had begun around the room in quiet wisps; team by team people exited the building in the silence. As the last of the very dejected Gennin scurried out of the room, Ibiki closed the door and masked his face into that of a harsh scowl, showing the lines of anger on his face.

"Now…everyone in this room—

Half of them took a breath.

—passes."

Naruto scoffed.

Deidara, in a somewhat misguided attempt to stop Tobi from laughing, kicked the boy's chair from in front of him hard.

The window crashed inward with the sound of shattered glass, and a large canopy of black spread around the room. In horrible scribbles resembling that of chicken scratch was the word "ANKO". Said woman tumbled forward and Naruto recognized her immediately earlier that day. She smoothed over her purple hair, a chewed stick of Dango clenched in her teeth another in her hand, grinning wildly as she did so.

Well, he supposed she was good. For a Konoha Shinobi at the least.

"How many passed?"

Ibiki whispered a number in her ear, and her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You passed how many teams?!"

A wince from the man and a tentative nod.

"Che." Anko spit out her Dango. "Be prepared flesh-bags, I'm gonna cut your numbers in half!"

She motioned for the participants to follow her, and they did, most of them rather reluctant. Sakura was visibly shaking as she tagged along silently with Sasuke and Sai, trying to keep her hands still. Naruto eyed the Shukaku Jinchuuriki warily as he made his way with his team. Seriously, someone needed to tell him how to keep his blood lust in check. How bad could one tail be compared to dealing with nine? But he shook his head and scanned the crowd for his no-good accomplices that had probably gotten lost somewhere without him.

He met up with Deidara and Tobi as they made there way through the streets over to the place they were going to.

"That woman's bat-shit crazy." Deidara mumbled to him. "She was one of Orochimaru's play things before he joined up with us."

"Ahh? Really? Anko-san is—

Naruto slapped a hand rather unceremoniously over Tobi's mask. Not that it did any good because the boy just kept squawking. "Shut up. She probably heard you."

"I'm thinking she did." Deidara commented nonchalantly in a stage whisper. "Because she tilted her head in this direction."

"Nice going, Tobi." Naruto muttered.

Tobi sniffled. "I'm sorry—

"Then make it up by keeping your mouth shut." The blond interrupted. Well, the blond that hadn't had to dye his hair.

"Yes! Tobi will be a good boy and keep his mouth shut for Naruto-san because he promised that he would be a good boy for this—

Naruto quickly shut him up before he gave away any vital information to the prying ears around them. Jeez, how did he get stuck with these idiots for this mission? Leader should know by now that he didn't need babysitters, especially half-assed ones who couldn't even do it properly like these two idiots. At least Itachi had the decency to do everything with a straight forward face and come up with plans beforehand. Even if he was a dick and talked like a brick wall.

"Ugh. Look. Here's the game plan, I kill everyone, take their scrolls, and we go to the tower. Sound good?"

"Say what—

"But Tobi wants—

"Listen up people!" Anko cut into the small chatter that had begun.

"This is Training Ground 40, otherwise known as the Forest of Death. Now here are the ground rules, there are two scrolls. Each group will receive only one; however, you need two-both heaven and earth-to successfully get to the tower."

As Anko began explaining what they were going to do, how they were going to die and all this other stuff that Naruto didn't feel like paying any special attention to, he scanned the crowd for their mission target. He didn't see the man anywhere though, but he felt the snake aura surrounding the entire group. But that may have just been Anko. It was difficult to tell.

He continued scanning discreetly while they signed those stupid papers, kicking Tobi whenever necessary before he babbled secret information to the listening ears around them. He noticed the Shukaku Jinchuuriki not too far off, but decided against confrontation.

"Team 15, gate 33!"

When Anko called out their name-along with the rest of the people-they hurried along to their gate. No one else noticed, but Naruto saw Deidara pulling down his sleeve nonchalantly to begin making small clay birds. There was one already soaring around the forest of death, disguised as a normal bird.

"Wow…" Tobi whispered, finally understanding that it's good to keep his voice down. "These plants…could Zetsu have been born here?"

"Not too unlikely." Naruto rolled his eyes. "These plants look like they could talk."

"Oh see! That one is a Glaftoria Remsad—(AN: That's not a real plant)

"Okay, okay. You know your plants. No more of this mumbo jumbo botany crap."

Tobi nodded sheepishly. The speakers above them crackled a bit, and the teams around them nearly jumped in their tension broken. Deidara glanced up as there was a rustling from the speakers as Anko moved around and tried to get it started. Everyone waited expectantly.

"BEGIN!"

All the gates mechanically opened, the teams fleeing into them like a gun shot. Naruto and his other two Akatsuki accomplices stayed behind. Naruto made a few dozen Kage Bunshin, and sent them off to deal with other teams and find some scrolls. Deidara had a flock of birds fluttering in the sky, ready to detonate.

"Let's go." Naruto grinned wildly as they shot into the higher branches of the forest.

"Naruto-sempai" Tobi whined. "Why do we have to go so high?"

"How many humans do you know look up to the sky more often then the ground?" Deidara shot back rather cynically. He seemed to be pissed.

Tobi glowered. "Uhm…Tobi doesn't know…?"

"Not too many." Naruto chastised the rather comical Akatsuki member. "And its good to lessen the chances of being seen."

Tobi nodded absentmindedly.

"I still don't understand," Deidara muttered. "Why we just can't kill people. This is so boring, I mean we haven't even found Orochimaru yet."

"We will." Naruto told him easily, his eyes moving to the side to watch an explosion rock somewhere beneath them.

--

--

--

Sakura panted as she rolled over to the side and back onto her feet.

However this was, was no one that they could handle. Sai's animals had been dispatched so easily, not even a lash of the being's tongue and they were on the floor in shattered pieces. Sasuke's Sharingan wasn't helping him very much either, fighting a losing battle with the man and his massive snakes. He was just too powerful. They couldn't do anything to help.

Sasuke clashed with the man again, getting a few square hits in before the man stopped playing and simply threw him into a tree.

The man was toying with them, Sakura realized absent mindedly, amidst the daze that clouded her system. Their best efforts and all he did was _play _around with them, like a cat and a mouse, just simply watching and playing for its own sick enjoyment.

Sai came in after Sasuke, reflecting a lot of the man's strikes before the man delivered a swift and powerful kick straight to his stomach and sent him tumbling into the dirt.

Sasuke had picked himself up, slowly off the ground, clutching one of his arms.

"You want out scroll?" Sasuke finally asked him, too tired to do much else.

The man/woman chuckled. "Good, just like good prey." He smiled. "You know when the predator is here, and just lay over and take it."

Sasuke scowled at the insult, anger welling in him, but it was wrapped in fear.

"But it's so boring, I want someone who can entertain me."

"We can."

The Snake-Sannin looked up into the higher parts of the trees, his playful and sick smile turning into a scowl.

"And who might this be? Ruining my fun?"

"Don't remember us? That's rather cruel of you."

The three dropped down from the trees, easily landing on their feet after an a hundred or so foot fall. Naruto was in the center, his red eyes glowing in the speckled light that dappled through the canopy. Deidara was on his right, his only visible eye was enough to give away his identity, a smirk on his lips. The last was Tobi, who, miraculously had stayed silent.

Orochimaru widened his eyes as he realized who the shinobi in front of him were. Gone was his sick mind games and large grins, his face had turned serious. Team Seven watched with interest.

"Remember us now, Orochimaru?"

Sakura's eyes widened, immediately picking up the name from one of the many texts she had read. Orochimaru, one of the three Sannin who had abandoned Konoha. He was extremely powerful, no wonder he had toyed with them. But who were these people he was afraid of?

"Akatsuki." Orochimaru snarled.

"Good." Naruto grinned. "Then you know why we're here. Did you think Leader-sama would let you get away so quickly?"

Almost immediately as Naruto said those words did he charge at the man with the biggest Rasengan he could conjure. Clay birds flew from their perches in a whirlwind of wind, gusting and making the trees shake with the tremors from the wind.

The Rasengan connected, and Naruto was aware that Orochimaru had quickly tried to side step, and the massive chakra ball sliced through his side in a messy cut, tearing skin and blood spurting.

As the man tumbled onto the dirt and back into a fighting stance, Naruto grinned, canines showing from between his lips.

The birds, that had been circling around like vultures just waiting for the prey, had dived in once they noticed that Naruto was finished and that the Sannin was having a hard time standing.

As they connected, their explosions set off and shook the ground, dirt flying everywhere along with the debris on the forest floor. They shot up into the sky with a loud explosion, Naruto quickly leaping away to avoid the blast. Deidara was grinning, finally some action.

The jagged wind eventually cleared the air of all the dust and smog, leaving nothing but a messy puddle of blood and large marks on the ground.

"Damn." Naruto groaned. "He got away."

Deidara spit on the ground, foul mood coming twice over. "He's probably not going to go the rest of the Chuunin exams, is he?"

Tobi looked around rather nervously, not quite understanding what was going on as his two teammates scowled ferociously.

"He might." Naruto warily looked over at the Uchiha's neck. Bite free. "So we should stick around."

Deidara nodded in understanding.

Orochimaru had no finesse, it was obvious he was after the younger and less powerful Uchiha. And—knowing Orochimaru—probably had bigger fish in mind. One of those bigger fish being the plot of revenge against his Sensei, who had appointed Naruto's father instead of his very own student. And if the Sandaime was one of Orochimaru's targets, then if they stuck around they'd get another opportunity to kill him.

Taking a swift look at his teammates, and noting that they seemed okay with this, he dropped the things he was holding in his pockets.

Dozens of scrolls fell out.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Sai all gasped.

Naruto however, didn't even look at them, shuffling around for both a Heaven and an Earth scroll, and tossing it to the team.

"We don't want your pity." Sasuke spit at them, and Sakura gaped.

"Never said you did." Naruto shot back coolly. "Think of it as equivalent exchange. That bastard isn't a Gennin—he's a Sannin, actually—and he's after you, Uchiha. So we give you these scrolls, and you let us travel with you. Your safety is included in this package."

Team Seven thought over the deal silently.

So, this person was apparently after Sasuke, ruthlessly stopping at nothing for the Uchiha for reasons they didn't know. This group was apparently after said Sannin, and seemed willing to comply with them to get it. They were offering the scrolls needed to pass this part of the exam, and the safety of traveling with them. Looking at how swiftly these people had came and easily turned the tables on Orochimaru, they seemed good to it. Sakura was convinced, but Sasuke wasn't.

"How can you give us safety if you're just Gennin?" The Uchiha growled.

It was quiet.

Suddenly, Naruto let out a bark of laughter, sharp and sudden. "Well, if you haven't noticed, we really aren't Gennin."

"What?"

Sakura blinked, but wasn't that—

"Look it's a long story." Deidara waved them off. "Just come with us."

--

--

--

--

The Sandaime eyed the scenery outside of his window seriously, in deep contemplation.

There was something…off. He wasn't sure if he was just being old and senile and paranoid in his rather…unorthodox age for a ninja, or if he was actually on to something. With another flick to his pipe, the tobacco debris fluttering to the floor, he turned around to glance at the enormous stack of mismatched paper work that towered over the desk and was stacked misshaped on the floor and sighed. He needed a successor very, very soon.

Suddenly, he felt the presence of a Shunshin, his ANBU, no doubt.

There were two of them, from there body posture and breathing out of breathe.

"Sandaime-sama…" One panted. "There has been two intruders—

"What?!"

The Sandaime was about to say more, when both of them suddenly collapsed on the floor. Giving them a once over, they appeared fine. Unconscious but otherwise okay.

The door creaked open.

Two cloaked figures came into the room. The only sound—it appeared that the guards outside of his office were also unconscious from their slumped forms he glimpsed—was a very slight jingle from tiny bells hanging from their hats. The straw hats had paper fringes at the ends of it, along with the bells to cover their faces and identities. There cloaks were black, sleeved and hanging all the way down to their sandaled feet. Bloody clouds were imprinted onto the fabric, lined in white.

"Who are you?" Sarutobi showed no signs of being nervous or wary. However, on the inside it was different.

"We're not here to fight." One of them said.

"If anything, we're giving you a bit of a bargain!" The other replied in a lighter voice.

"Bargain?" The Hokage narrowed his eyes. "I don't bargain with unknown strangers."

They took off the hats.

Two pairs of hands came out, both with black painted finger nails. One arm was pale, not entirely sickly like Orochimaru but of a person who didn't spend much time out of that cloak. The other was blue, which the Hokage found odd. There weren't many people with that range of skin colors. Or the painted nails either. Whoever these people worked for—it was obvious since the cloaks looked like uniforms—was either really out there or really sadistic. Somehow, Sandaime new it was the latter.

His eyes widened.

Missing-nin.

More importantly, one of Konoha's very own missing-nin stepping back into his country, the Hokage's office no less. From the long black hair framing an aloof face, in a low ponytail just near his neck, and the black eyes with swirling red pinwheels-Sharingan of course-it had to be Uchiha Itachi. And, from the blue skin, the gills, and the utter-shark look of him, the other was also an S-class missing-nin, Hoshigake Kisame.

"What are you two doing here?" He ground out.

"We're not doing anything." Kisame snorted defensively. "We're just here to inform you."

"In form me?"

"Orochimaru has infiltrated the Chuunin Exams in order to put a curse seal on my brother." Itachi said, voice as flat and bored as ever as if he was speaking about the weather. "Unbeknown to them or not, our comrades taking the Exams have stopped this event from occurring."

"In the exams?!" Sarutobi snarled. "This is absurd! No S-Class criminals are allowed to take the exams—

"But are we?" Kisame grinned, interrupting the man.

The Sandaime eyed him coolly.

No one spoke.

"What do you mean?" The Hokage finally gave in to listening.

As Itachi opened his mouth to speak, the older man picked up his pipe from his desk, and placed it in his mouth with a puff of smoke. Then leaned back into his chair, and eyed the two still standing. Silently, he motioned for the both of them to sit in the chairs in his office, opting to speak like gentleman who had a proposition—business partners—than hooligans trading their lives out on the field.

"As we have already informed you, Orochimaru is in the exams."

Sarutobi nodded.

"For his main purpose, our Leader is not interested in. The only thing Leader-sama wants with Orochimaru is him dead." Itachi's face held nothing. "Do you understand and do you have any qualms with us carrying out this mission?"

The Hokage contemplated this.

"You do not know Orochimaru's true purpose here?"

Kisame shook his head. "Nah, we know he's after the little Uchiha squirt for his next body though."

"Body?" The Sandaime nearly dropped his pipe.

"The Sannin has created away to have immortality." Itachi explained slowly. "To put it simply, he transfers himself into different bodies in order to live forever. By implanting a curse seal on Sasuke and using that power and Sasuke's revenge he was planning to lure the boy to him."

"Ah." The Hokage nodded. "So, your field operatives have negated this event, whether they knew of it or not?"

"Yes."

"If this is your only reason to make me keep these criminals in this exam, you are sorely mistaken." Sarutobi snorted.

"But if Orochimaru wanted my brother's body so badly, why would he stop then?" Itachi leaned back coolly. "Orochimaru is a man of goals and words. If he wants an Uchiha as his next body, he will not stop at anything to get it."

"We highly doubt that Orochimaru's main purpose in the exams is that either." Kisame grinned. "If anything, he's out for Konoha blood so you should expect a battle."

The Sandaime Hokage of Konoha nodded grimly.

"So this bargain of yours," He frowned. "Is that I keep your field operatives in the exam, and you kill Orochimaru for Konoha and stop whatever plot he has for this country?"

"We keep our past where it should be, in the past." Itachi spoke metaphorically. "Just once, we will help Konoha by eliminating a threat to her country, and kill Orochimaru, and both parties leave happy."

The man let out a waft of smoke.

It traveled in the air in slow patterns, swirling in the air above him in an opaque and translucent ashen mist. He puffed again and the scent of the tobacco tinged with vanilla swirled in the air like the eddies of waves.

The Hokage eyed him warily. He never took a liking to under the table dealing, ever. But even with before hand knowledge, he didn't know if Konoha could take a hit like that. Knowing Orochimaru, he was most likely connected to this new shinobi country called Otogakure. If his past references and Jiraiya's spy network were anything to go by.

And even if he refused to work with whatever organization both Uchiha Itachi _and _Hoshigake Kisame—and god knows how many more high ranked criminals—what would happen to his country? He highly, highly doubted that these two criminals would walk out the door empty handed without repercussions. Just their reputations alone, and the thought of an entire organization of these Bingo Book criminals coming after Konoha was not a very good thought.

"Fine."

--

--

--

--

Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai, also known as Konoha's Team Seven, were not having a good day.

In Sakura's point of view, anyhow.

Firstly, Sasuke had nearly gotten into a fist fight with one of his many rivals, this one being Hyuga Neji. Now Sakura new that Sasuke was definitely an amazing ninja—although after all this she wasn't so sure—and could have wiped the floor with that Hyuga of _course_ (sarcasm noted here, dully), but then this other boy stopped the fight with ease! He had just came out of nowhere and grabbed both of them and with only one hit sent both of them to the floor. And worst and most embarrassing of all, it wasn't even his _intention_ to stop the fight, he was giving something to the Chuunin on guard and they were in his way!

Then, they're attacked by this extremely powerful ninja Gennin turned Sannin, who single-handedly sends their entire team to the ground and was about to do something to Sasuke-kun, when the boy shows up again, this time with teammates!

The three of them were bickering a bit at first—but they had superb teamwork, which really shows their strength. To dislike each other and work so well was unheard of! But, they were able to chase the powerful ninja away via both extremely explosive attacks and some threat to the ninja called "Akatsuki".

Which landed them here.

They were following said extremely powerful ninja, Sasuke looking embarrassed and pissed at the same time, Sai blank, and her worried and about to chew her fingernails.

Sakura noticed with ease that none of them got along.

"What do you mean, my fault?! Just because I'm not retarded like _you _doesn't mean this is my fault—

"Retarded?! Who are you calling retarded?!"

"—if it means so much to you then I'll kill them—

"Guys…please…Tobi feels—

"SHUT UP TOBI!"

The boy with the mask shrank back.

Sakura decided that this Tobi character was probably the best and easiest to talk to, judging from the shouting match that the other two had gotten into. Both the blond and brunette (who was actually blond) were too busy shouting anyways.

"Uhm…Tobi, right?" Sakura started awkwardly.

Said boy snapped his head to her in surprise. "Yes…that's me. And you are—?"

"Oh. Sakura." She jumped to another branch. "And the other two are Sasuke and Sai."

"Oh!" Tobi jumped. "Sasuke? I know who Sasuke is! He's Itachi's—

Naruto clamped Tobi's mouth shut by practically tackling him, sending both of them toppling into the forestry, and the brunette with dirty blond hair laughing wildly. Despite his best attempts, Sasuke had heard the entire sentence, and his eyes narrowed dangerously as he hoped yet another branch in there rather fast traveling speed.

"I knew it." The Uchiha growled.

Sakura gulped. "Sasuke—

"You know where Itachi is!" Sasuke shouted.

"Not really." Deidara answered for his other two accomplices who were somewhere below them. "We don't know where exactly he is, but we've met him on occasion."

Sasuke growled, leaping from his tree branch in a futile attempt to get to Deidara.

The S-Class criminal easily dodged with a passive face. "Look sorry kid, but I can't tell you anymore—

"Hey!"

Naruto leapt back up with Tobi in tow, beckoning for the group to lower their altitude.

Deidara shot a look to his two partners, and back at the three lagging Gennin that they were traveling with. Sighing, he decided that he might as well follow his other blond companion and see what all the fuss was about. He motioned for the three Gennin that made Team Seven to lower down, and he jumped over to where Naruto and Tobi were at. It didn't look like much, just a large clearing that had the faint look of a battle, and smelt like blood.

Deidara looked back, noting that the squirts were still getting down. "So?"

"Shukaku was here." Naruto sniffed.

Tobi blinked. "But I though Naruto-sempai said that Shukaku wasn't a threat."

"He's not." Naruto re-affirmed. "However, I don't feel like letting those kids know anything about me yet, and if we meet up with him I'm bound to pull rank."

"Pull rank?" Tobi echoed.

"Shukaku's a lesser demon compared to Kyuubi." Naruto explained slowly. "You know, Kyuubi, king of demons?"

"Oh!" Tobi nodded, shivering slightly.

It was then that Team Seven dropped from the trees. Sasuke leapt down in a swift motion, followed by Sai, who leaped over his branch and onto the floor. Sakura gulped, looking at the ground from her own tree branch that was rather high, one leg off the branch and one leg still on it. She then too, dropped to the ground, in a crouch, and shakily stood up. Naruto sighed. Was this there first time with any relatively fast form of traveling? (discounting running and walking…_anyone _could do that)

"So why'd we get down?" Sasuke panted.

Naruto waved him off, the blond not even breathing hard. "To avoid complications."

Sai raised an eyebrow.

"Not like Orochimaru complications." Naruto elaborated easily. "Just things that would slow us down."

"But it's only the first day!" Sakura panted.

(AN: I don't know if it was actually the first day they saw Orochimaru, but it is in my story :)

"So?" Deidara snorted. "I'd rather not stay in this dank forest more than I have to."

"C'mon." Naruto groaned. "The tower's right here anyways."

Sakura blinked.

Oh.

It was right there.

The looming figure of a feudal Japanese-styled tower was straight above them, tall and large and colored with reds and aqua greens, with a slate roof with gold edges. It was a rather odd looking tower, with wires and such coming out of balconies and windows in odd places, but the entrance was made from too large doors.

Naruto and Deidara—because Tobi didn't have a clue—made Bunshin to walk forward, and watched in amusement as the Bunshin hit a variety of easy-to-tell traps that set off and left a mess on the forest floor. Sakura gaped. She had no idea those were there!

Naruto swept the perimeter.

"We're good."

He motioned with his hands for them to follow.

Her two male teammates—in an attempt to _not _seem like they were scared out of their minds—walked forward with the Akatsuki members. She on the other hand, was tentative and cautious enough not to go waltzing into a clearing that was just booby trapped beyond repair. However, true to their word, the three odd mismatched boys who didn't seem like they were Gennin at all (and had told Team Seven such) had gotten them to the tower safely, snorting softly at the amount of scrolls they got in the process and tossed them on the ground.

"W-Well what do we do know?" Sakura stuttered, looking about the craggy tower.

Naruto took his scroll out of his pocket, and Deidara did too. "We open them."

"Open them?" Sasuke frowned. "That Anko lady or whatever said not too—

"Screw her." Deidara snorted.

Sakura gaped.

"B-But—

"We're already at the tower." Naruto yawned, having the decency to cover his mouth. "So who cares? It's not like we took this test to be Chuunin or anything."

"You didn't?" Sasuke's scowl deepened.

"Probably not." Sai affirmed. "Because if anything, it seems they're after this man called 'Orochimaru'. If the fact that they willingly gave us scrolls and protected us for the opportunity to be there when this person—for some reason—goes after Sasuke again is anything to go by."

"Right on, little boy." Deidara grinned.

Sakura frowned. "Then…you're not here to be Chuunin?"

"Nah." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I don't really care about rank. All I care about is getting stronger."

"Those attacks." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Who taught them to you?"

Naruto grinned cheekily.

"What do you want with them, squirt?" Naruto teased.

"Sasuke!"

Said Uchiha charged at Naruto, still grinning in a very vulpine way. He dodged the attack swiftly, catching the Uchiha in one swift motion. He cringed when Sakura's scream hit his ear but either than that, he didn't flinch at all. It reminded Sai of the way Kakashi handled Sasuke when the boy got out of control. In a very lax and disinterested way, like talking to a spoiled brat. It was easy to tell, from Sai's opinion at least, that these people weren't to be messed with.

Wherever they came from, dealing with Team Seven was just a means to an end.

And that end was this man Orochimaru's death.

It was obvious that these three, Naruto Deidara and Tobi (albeit the fact that Tobi seemed a little slow) were strong and powerful, and also were probably on a mission for someone. Someone with a lot of power, and a lot of strength, who had no intention to mess with Konoha, just for the sole personal purpose of killing Orochimaru. If anything, it seemed like the powerhouse behind these three was doing this out of pride and personal issues.

He wasn't dim minded and meek like Sakura, who got scared at anything that seemed far, far too above her level. And he wasn't hot headed like Sasuke, who, if taunted enough times would fall straight for any sort of trap. That was probably why Sai was the most important person of Team Seven, he kept his cool and didn't act on his emotions, that may also be why he was the most dangerous.

As he once again dodged Sasuke's attack, Naruto's eyes swerved to the boy in the corner.

That Sai was smart.

Deciding that play time was over, he jabbed Sasuke swiftly in one of his leg joints, sending the boy toppling to the floor and his pink-haired banshee screaming in dismay.

"What did you do?!" She hissed, as if she could do anything in retaliation.

Naruto shrugged. "I hit one of his joints so he can't get up and attack me. Of course."

"Now, if we're done here." Deidara interrupted. "Team Seven, I suggest you open those scrolls, Naruto, Tobi, let's go."

--

--

--

--

Leader was both pleased and upset.

So, they had managed to work a deal with the Hokage to eliminate Orochimaru and gain free access to Konoha without having to sneak it, which was a definite plus. With that, they could get into the exams and keep a watch for Orochimaru, and it would make things a lot easier than having to go through the hassle of getting around security and keeping Akatsuki's name out of it. It mattered not whether the Hokage knew of their organization at this point, because soon, everyone would.

Not killing Orochimaru was a minor set back.

The man may be a bit more cautious now that he knew his old organization was out for his head, but the man was stupid and revenge-driven enough to not let it get to him. Whatever plans he had for the Sandaime Hokage and Konoha both was still in fast action as he had wanted it to be before he encountered Naruto, Deidara, and Tobi. So, the only thing they had to do was wait.

He tipped his chair thoughtfully, tenting his fingers on his lap as he studied the picture frame that Naruto had eyed.

He didn't even know why he bothered to keep it there.

"Naruto…right?"

The kitchen stove wasn't working that day.

It had annoyed Naruto to no end that he had only been home for a couple hours, and that after taking a nice look at his horribly messy room and beautiful window, he had come down for ramen to notice that the stove had malfunctioned. In other words, it wasn't working—or maybe he wasn't working it properly?—and he couldn't have his ramen. Until he realized that he could just as easily heat it with his fingertips and that, was that.

He peered behind him slowly, careful not to burn the ramen too much.

A man with silver hair sleeked back came into the kitchen, a rosary adorning his bare chest.

The man wore nothing but slacks. And was covered in blood. Naruto cringed at the smell. He loved the smell of blood, of course, but when he wanted flesh, not when he was looking forward to a nice meal of chicken Miso ramen. The man nursed a beer lightly—so it was his Bud Light in the fridge, Naruto noted dully—and sat down at the table, bleeding over the chair and dripping down his arms to the table.

There was a hole ripped cleanly in the man's stomach region, a bloody crimson mess of ripped flesh that was hanging off the strings and looked painful. However, the man paid it no heed. One of his arms had a chunk ripped off of it, hanging by the white bone that was seen through all the blood, and a few muscle tendons exposed to the air. There was another fatal wound on his chest, ripping open a lung and possible exposing the heart, if the way the blood pumped and gurgled down his torso was anything to go by.

"Yeah." Naruto said stupidly, distracted by all the blood.

He didn't know what else to say. "You're bleeding all over the carpet."

"Yeah I know." Hidan groaned. "Kakuzu is gonna have my head."

"…Kakuzu?"

"My partner." Hidan elaborated. Then sent a look at Naruto. "Who's yours?"

"Partner?" Naruto echoed.

"Yeah you know…like, Itachi and that jackass fish work together, Sasori and Deidara work together, Me and Kakuzu do, and then Tobi and Zetsu." Hidan waved his dumbstruck face off, opting to take another swig of beer. "I dunno about that weird chick and Leader-sama. But I guess they work together too."

"You mean Konan-san?"

"Yeah sure."

Naruto blinked again. This was new information. He didn't even know there was a partner system at all in Akatsuki, hell, he didn't know that Pein was a _fan _of the buddy system in the first place. But apparently so, if the way Hidan had so easily explained it to him. He realized he didn't really have a buddy person or whatever in Akatsuki, and if anything, he worked alone.

"I guess I…work alone."

"No shit?" Hidan looked at him over all the blood and beer. "Wow. Lucky little bastard. Having a partner sucks. You have to share the reward, share the work, and most of all share the kill! Totally sucks."

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, sitting opposite of the man who stunk like blood and cussed like a sailor. "I totally know what you mean."

Naruto believed this was the start of a beautiful friendship.

…

Naruto yawned and stretched over his head. He was walking down the Akatsuki hallways with Deidara once Hidan had left for another mission with Kakuzu. Hidan was a pretty cool guy, Naruto realized easily. He was kind of blunt about things and cussed like a drunken sailor, drank way to much alcohol and had _way _too much tolerance for the stuff, but he was cool. He also worshiped some odd god called Jashin, and sacrificed people or whatever.

But Naruto liked to overlook that. It wasn't many times he met someone who was cool like Hidan.

Deidara was pretty okay, a bit girly in a transvestite fetish kinda way, but he was okay. Tobi was a bit stupid, but he had good intentions at heart—which was hard to say in this particular organization. Kisame wasn't half bad, but he was a jerk who finished your sentences and smelt like fish, and had some six foot long sword that _shaved_. Not cut, but _shaved_. Naruto wasn't sure whether that was sadistic or kinky.

Itachi wasn't too interesting. Naruto could understand why people like Sasuke who were whacked in the head could have looked up to the guy, in an odd and…quiet way. He was definitely a great ninja, a bit mechanical and emotionless but that was somewhat of an epitome status when it came to killing people. He hadn't met Sasori or Kakuzu in person, and he met Zetsu once. One part of the man tried to eat him and he decided he didn't like the guy. Konan was definitely cool, and nice in a weird way.

"So, me, you and Tobi don't have a mission until like…next month." Deidara groaned.

"Yeah I know." Naruto said around the popsicle in his mouth. "It sucks."

"I feel bad for Sasori-danna." Deidara nodded solemnly. "He's stuck with Zetsu."

"Hey Deidara?" Naruto said quietly, and Deidara noticed oddly that there was no hint of joking, teasing, or antagonizing in his voice.

"What?"

"Who _is _Orochimaru?"

Deidara shrugged. "Well I don't know much, but he was kinda a weird guy. Not in a weird guy like Kisame, but like really, really _weird_. In a sick way. He'd experiment on little kids and have odd underage relationships with people like that Anko girl, and you know, he was sick. In the pedophile kind of way."

"Oh." Naruto scrunched up his nose. "Eww."

"Exactly...yeah."

"Hey Deidara." Naruto said suddenly. "You're like the gossip house in Akatsuki right?"

Deidara had the decency to look affronted, but didn't deny it. "Yeah, so?"

"Do you know of a…Sora girl?" Naruto made sure to give a good sweep of the dimly lit cavern. In case Konan was anywhere nearby.

Deidara blinked.

"How do…you know who that is…yeah?"

Naruto struggled for words. "I dunno, she was this kinda creepy girl I met who lived really high up in the lair and had tea parties n' stuff with fake stuffed toys."

Deidara nodded. "Yeah you know, not many people know her…actually just me, you, Leader-sama and Konan-san."

"Oh." Naruto blinked, frowning. "So she's not part of Akatsuki or anything?"

"Nah."

Deidara swiftly looked around the corridor. "Wanna know who she is?"

"Yes!" Naruto nodded furiously.

"She's Leader's daughter."

…

"Wait…slow down." Naruto took a long gulp of air. "She's Leader's daughter?!"

"Keep it down…yeah!" Deidara sent furtive glances around the deserted halls. "But yeah, she is. I have no freaking clue what happened to her mother so don't ask me. All I know is that she lives on the highest floor and that she never comes down."

Naruto blinked. "Then I'm like…her adopted brother or whatever?"

Deidara shrugged. "If you wanna put it that way. But trust me, you belong to a wacked up shit-messed family."

There were thousands—and thousands—of floors in the Akatsuki base. So many to the point that after the twenty-third level or so no one dared to go any higher. There were fifty floors if you went all the way up, but that's not including all the other sections of the base besides the main one. It was so vast that Naruto stuck to the main tower, where everything was. Leader's office was on the twenty-second level precisely, and everyone knew he had a stair case that led to the higher levels somewhere in that room.

The forty-eighth floor was where Sora was, that Naruto new for a fact.

"That's so…

"Weird? Yeah I know." Deidara agreed.

…

--

--

Back in Konoha, the Sandaime was stirring over some new news that had come in.

From Team Seven, no less.

"And they helped you?"

Sakura nodded quickly. "Yeah. This blond boy, and this guy with brown hair, and another with an orange mask that swirled to his left eye."

"Is that all you can tell me?"

"They had to have been working for someone." Sai said slowly, deliberately emotionless. "They weren't after that Orochimaru man for their own sake, but for someone else's. It was like they were working for a Leader or something."

Sasuke nodded. "They said something about that."

"Ah."

The Sandaime was remembering his encounter with the S-class criminals just yesterday. The two had obviously worked for someone, someone of great caliber and strength, who could recruit S-Class criminals to do his bidding, whoever that was, was a very dangerous power figure. If that man wanted Orochimaru dead, than by no means would the Hokage get in the way of that. It would mean that Orochimaru would be alive—and when he was alive he was always a threat to Konoha—and then this organization would be after _him_.

And the Hokage would rather sit away from the crossfire of such, bide his time and learn more about this organization. Perhaps send Jiraiya to check out his spy network to find any group that would fit there odd attire. It didn't seem like this Leader figure wanted this association to be hidden at all.

But he could find out the people in this organization.

"Can you describe them?"

"They didn't seem to bother hiding their identities." Sai noted dully. "One was named Tobi, wore a mask and had black hair. The other was called Deidara, and had long brown hair. And the last…

All the took a long breath, as if this was the most powerful of them—

"Said his name was Naruto, and was blond with blue eyes."

The Sandaime dropped his pipe.

_I'm so happy with FF and how they put that Reader Traffic thing up. I find it so interesting to see where people in different countries are and I find it even more flattering that they're looking at my stories! Wow, thanks guys (: _

_But you better REVIEW! Yes, because reviews make the world go round more than money, and I personally think the button is prettay!_


	6. crimson: scarlet fire

_Theres something really weird with my FFnet document file thing. Half the time it won't even work, and now that it FINALLY is, every single time I upload it repeats the first sentence three times. It's so weird!_

* * *

The month was uneventful.

The most interesting that happened in the Akatsuki lair—everyone seemed to be out, Hidan and Kakuzu were in snow country, Zetsu was doing something that no one exactly cared about, Kisame and Itachi were currently stationed in Konoha with negotiations, and Leader was in his study, except no one dared to go there unless summoned—was on a fine day in the Training ground.

The main mountain where everyone stayed in was hollowed out so that sunlight streamed to the bottom, and grass and some plants grew among the dwindling sunlight.

This was where Deidara had set up his oil paints and easel, his brushes moving smoothly over the fine paper. The mouths on his hands ate raptly on the brush's wood handle, and Deidara had to continuously slap them to keep them from gnawing. Meanwhile, far enough that Deidara didn't have to move himself out of harm's way every other moment, but still in ear shot, Naruto was practicing the Hirashin. Leader had since given him permission to begin larger scaled-practice with it, but he had yet to full understand how the entire process worked. Obviously he was using some sort of higher-scale Shunshin to transport from one kunai to the next, with the use of seals.

Every time though, he'd make it from one to the second, but while on his way to the third he'd lose his concentration and fall flat on his face.

Deidara still hadn't stopped laughing.

"Deidara shut up before I make you." Naruto grumbled over the full out laughter, struggling to get up without moving his now twisted ankle.

The other blond was swatting the ground in bouts of laughter. "B-But God you should have _seen _your face! Priceless! Can't believe you actually…actually—fell! Oh god…"

Naruto growled lowly, throwing kunai with the intent to maim some decently vital organs and Deidara yelped as he dodged out of the way.

"What the hell! You could have got my painting!" The older of the two screeched.

Naruto shrugged indifferently. "You're fault, you should know by now my dangerous tendencies."

The other looked to retort, before stopping short. "Where the hell's Tobi?"

"Hmm, I haven't seen him around."

"Me either."

The two sat in silence.

"Strange," Deidara finally began. "Usually you'd hear him causing some sort of trouble around here…"

After another minute reign of silence, Naruto shrugged and went back to practicing the Hirashin, and Deidara turned back to his artwork. Deidara was painting the spiral of windows in the Akatsuki lair that faced the hollowed inside, their craggy stone carved into perfect squares, never ending imprints on the rock all the way until the fresh air at the top of the mountain (which was actually a long since dead volcano, hollowed out a little more and built upon).

Neither of them noticed drawn black curtains to a window that almost never opened.

Pein drummed his fingers lightly over the smoothly cut varnished wood of his large study chair. It was a nice thing, made from an ancient tree in the denser parts of Iwa where there were said to be forest gods, and was something he stumbled upon in his travels around the vast world they lived in.

However, this was something he had never stumbled upon.

The man in front of him was not the loser with oddly exceptional dodging skills that he had invited into the organization along with Zetsu. He had known this for a rather long time now, and although he had some hints as to who exactly the man in front of him was, he had to applaud the man's acting skills. He was after all, a being not unlike himself.

"Madara." He greeted informally, with a tip of his head.

The other man mimicked the action. "Nice to see you, Pein."

"What do I owe the dubious pleasure?" The Akatsuki Leader smirked wryly, as the Uchiha leaned against the wall shadowed in inky darkness.

"I'm wondering why you'd exert effort into this 'Orochimaru project'."

The Uchiha was as blunt and forward as usual.

"Is that because I asked you to tag along with them? Or because you really want to know my motives?" Pein tented his fingers and leaned over his desk.

Behind the swirled mask, a Sharingan blazed wildly. "A bit of both, really."

With two of the most powerful men on the planet in one small, woodened door enclosed study, the tension was high and so was the Killer intent. Of course, there would be no lying, no deceit, between the two of them. Their playing field was much, much higher than the one filled with webs of lies created by low-lives, not too unlike Orochimaru and his usual schemes.

"You said you wanted to see the remaining Uchiha." Leader shrugged, the bridge piercings shimmering in the flickering candle light. "If I recall."

"You recall correctly." The Uchiha let the implied insult slide off his back, watching the flickering candle with his three-tomoe eyes. "But, this Naruto character interests me much more than that silly little boy."

"Oh? My adopted son?" Leader's brow shot up in surprise. "I hear him and 'Tobi' do not get along too well."

"No they don't." Madara chuckled lightly. "But then again, Tobi does not get along with many people, does he?"

Pein scowled lazily. "Did you come here to converse about Tobi's relationship with Naruto?"

"On the contrary I came to speak about Naruto and you." The dark black curtains in Leader's study were usually pulled back, however now they were open with the dim light from the training grounds, Deidara's yelp and Naruto's growl heard faintly. "He's quite a temperamental fellow."

"He is." The Leader agreed. "I wonder if it has to do with Kyuubi."

Madara's eyes flickered back from the window to Pein. "Do you think it was a good idea to announce his identity?"

"It doesn't matter." Pein grinned, a true mimic of the Cheshire cat. "Soon enough, Akatsuki will be revealed, Naruto is only a small part in the grand scheme of things."

Behind the mask, Madara's eyes were hooded. "Just a pawn on the chess board, right?"

The Leader didn't answer, cat-like eyes watching his leaning form closely.

"Are you so sure," The Uchiha continued on. "It isn't that we are nothing more than pawns and Naruto is the King?"

"And what do you mean by that?" Pein asked slowly.

Madara grinned, walking out of the room. "What do I mean, indeed."

--

--

--

"Kakashi-sensei is late." Sakura sighed as she leaned against the railing, watching the arena.

Team Seven had made it into the finals, together. It was something she new was a blessing, a miracle even, that she had been able to keep consciousness in her fight with Ino. She had bounded up the stairs, congratulated slightly by her teammates. At first, she had wondered angrily why they weren't a bit more interested, when she then realized that her win was nothing more than a heavy stroke of luck, and nothing more. Since then, her spirits had sunk lower, but she had trained nevertheless. Sai had made it in too, using some subtle ink creatures to finally bind his opponent. Sasuke had easily defeated his opponent in one of the very first rounds.

Now however, was where the problems were.

She peered over the railing a little more, to get a better look at the stands. She could see the outline of Kurenai's dress, and a green blur she suspected to be Maito Gai. But no Kakashi.

Sai had already lost to a Sound Nin, and Sasuke was going up against a boy formidable opponent named Gaara from Sand.

On the floor now was a long, drawn out match between Temari of the sand and Shikamaru. Shikamaru of course, was being a lazy bum and hiding in the shadows as Temari hacked away at the shrubbery. She could tell that this match was going to take a long, long time. Temari growled something to Shikamaru, who was still somewhere behind a tree. The boy said something back, but behind the ringing in her ears she couldn't hear. She clenched her fists again, she was facing whoever won this challenge.

Sighing, she uncurled her fists from the railing, and walked over to the match brackets.

She noticed that—as they said—none of the three who helped her and Team Seven to the tower were there at all, it was as if they never existed.

But they did exist.

And she remembered what Kakashi had said when they told him.

"_Someone helped you?" Kakashi blinked, and actually looked up from his book to stare at them._

_Sakura fumbled a little with the bottom of her dress, feeling a little misplaced at the hard stare that Kakashi was giving them._

"_Three people." Sai watched his teacher's face closely. There was something that the man new. "Do you know of them?"_

_Kakashi shrugged evasively. "Go on."_

"_They said their names were…" Sakura frowned, trying to remember. "One was named Deidara."_

_Kakashi nodded. He had heard of Deidara from Stone, a notorious S-ranked criminal. _

"_Another one named Tobi." Sasuke spoke up._

_Kakashi had never heard of that one, maybe a new criminal? He'd have to check his bingo book. _

"_And…there was another one." Sakura started again. "But I don't remember—_

"_Naruto." Sasuke growled icily. Kakashi felt something in him freeze. "The youngest of them. He said his name was Naruto."_

Kakashi had then proceeded to shuttle them over to the Hokage to relay the same message, and Sakura watched the old man—whom she had looked up to as the greatest ninja in the village like the rest of the ninja and citizens in the village—drop his pipe in surprise and…some other emotion. An emotion that she couldn't place. But seeing such a variety of them on the Sandaime's face was rather surprising. Who was Naruto? And what was his affect on the Hokage? How could he possibly have such an effect on people like Sarutobi-sama and Kakashi-sensei when he wasn't even from the village?

And more importantly, why did he have such an affect?

"Winner is: Sabuku no Temari!" The Chuunin on the ground yelled into the stands, and cheers began to wildly erupt.

Sakura felt her stomach drop.

"Sakura." Sasuke looked over his shoulder. "It's your turn."

Sakura nodded timidly, beginning her trek down to the arena. She passed Shikamaru on the way up, the lazy boy shrugged indifferently when she tried to ask him how the match went. He didn't seem too particularly interested in making Chuunin _or _the outcome of his match. He wished her good luck though, albeit in the laziest way possible and it came out more like a large, lazy grunt. All in all, his laziness made her a little less jittery, but nothing could stop the storm raging in her gut, coiling like a dense hurricane amidst an isolation of anxiety.

As the blinding light—to her it almost looked like it was the light coming to take her dead body—at the end of the tunnel to the arena overcame her senses, she found herself remembering what happened in the forest of death a little over a month ago with Naruto and his team. They had dispatched a team of Rain-nin with such speed, accuracy, and overall disinterest that she felt herself in both awe and fear. Actually, Naruto had dispatched them, while the brunette-blond stood lazily over on the side and the Tobi boy cheered.

"The life of Shinobi." The blond had shrugged to her indifferently when he noticed her shivering. She was captivated by the blue of his eyes.

Right now, as she saw the kunoichi on the ground canting her hip and leaning against her fan in the most I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass way she had ever seen a Kunoichi, she wished she had that same kind of strength like Naruto did.

--

"Hokage-sama."

The Hokage stiffened, a voice from a very long, long time ago.

The Yondaime (AN: It is the Yondaime right?) of Sunagakure had excused himself as one of his subordinates had come with some apparent 'urgent' news. Leaving the Hokage alone on the loft balcony, watching one of his newly made Gennin with pink hair battle it out with a blond kunoichi from Suna. It was unusually quiet, and the Sandaime was just thinking about the Akatsuki's ominous prophecy of Orochimaru. Here. In the exams. The thought made him shiver. Was he there, on the ground? Or was he somewhere much, much, closer…?

The voice had jolted him to reality.

The Hokage nodded curtly. "Itachi."

Sarutobi's eyes swept to the corner of his vision, where three figures cloaked in red cloud coats were standing ominously against the Konoha dusk, imprinted with the backdrop of a sleepy Konoha behind them. They wore the straw hats still, the miniscule bells jingling portentously with the wind. He noted that one was most certainly Itachi, from the Uchiha's voice, another was-from the large sword strapped on his back and covered with bandages-his partner, Hoshigake Kisame. But who was the last? He appeared very small compared to his much taller and more mature counterpart, tipping his hat forward to keep his face shrouded in darkness, a tan hand with fingerless gloves stretching from the inside of the cloak.

From the way the boy stood, he acted like he was the runner of the show, just as threatening as the other two against a blood sunset, the pink and chambray spreading out behind them on the easel of the sky, drawing out the darkness of the black on their coats.

He wondered why he even struck a deal with them, when it was obvious what there ill-intentions were.

"We've come to inform you of the specific dates of the infiltration." The Uchiha—dubbed spokesperson of the three—informed him in the low drawl that was normal for the elder of the Uchiha brothers.

"And those would be…?" Sarutobi trailed off.

"The match of Uchiha Sasuke and Sabuku no Gaara."

"The Kazekage's son?" The Hokage wondered aloud. "But then that would mean that—

The Uchiha nodded indifferently. "That Orochimaru is using the Kazekage's body as a disguise."

"And so in exchange for letting your comrades into the exam you will take care of Orochimaru for me?" The Sandaime asked warily, making note of how notorious the two known Akatsuki member's reputations were.

The other—Kisame—nodded. "We'll take care of him, but you should probably alert your Shinobi, because Orochimaru has created an alliance with Sand—

"And as of thus he will have double the forces. Along with the power of the Shukaku Jinchuuriki." Itachi interrupted the fish-man, who growled furiously. "Would you like us to dispatch the Jinchuuriki as well?"

The Hokage of Konoha eyed the proposition warily. "And why would you go through the trouble to do so, exactly?"

"Because!" Finally, the smallest of them spoke up, and the Sandaime was shocked to find how high pitched it was. The boy could be no older than thirteen. "I want to test him."

The Uchiha nodded curtly. "Alright."

"Huh, no orders?" The youngest (it was obvious to tell with his voice) teased slightly. "How strange."

Itachi turned to the boy, skeptical. "Fine then, Naruto. Go down into the stands and wait until the Jinchuuriki begins to move against protocol. Then, you are ordered to use whatever means necessary to take him down, besides the use of Konoha citizens."

Naruto pulled his mask down, rolling his eyes. "Such a stickler, as usual."

The Hokage stood up quickly. "Naruto?!"

To both his chagrin and fear, the young blond boy remembered him, giving him a half wave in the air breezily before he turned to jump the twenty or so feet to the stands. "Yo, old man."

The Sandaime was still standing, even as the two S-class criminals used a Shunshin to fade into the background.

"Is everything alright, Hokage-sama?" The 'Kazekage' asked him lightly, but seriously.

The Sandaime forced himself to keep his cool. "Yes, everything is fine, I just thought I…saw something."

The Kazekage raised his brow. "Oh?"

"Oh…" Sakura panted heavily as she skidded to a halt in the dirt, dust picking up like slight clouds, separating her from Temari.

The blond had one slim hand curved up, crossing her body in the aftermath of a large sweep of her fan. The blow had forced Sakura to retreat into a corner, brushing the locks of pink hair out of her hair, she really should cut it. Her hands were about to go up her dress to the Kunai holster on her thigh, when she remembered what happened after Temari's match with TenTen, the weapon master. It hadn't ended well for someone who specialized in weapons, so Sakura doubted it would end well for someone like her, who hadn't really had much training with the besides the standard.

Suddenly, Temari charged, and Sakura rolled to the side, before lifting herself into the air with a giant chakra-enhanced leap.

Bad move.

Temari used her fan to push the air, sending Sakura toppling into the wall, sliding down from a good ten feet and clutching her badly bruised and possibly broken shoulder. Smirking, Temari flicked her enormous fan so that it opened a little wider.

The purple of it glowed in the peachy sunset that was casting long shadows over the arena.

"I forfeit!" Sakura screamed so suddenly that even her opponent blinked.

Hayate shifted the cigarette in his mouth, raising his right hand. "Winner is: Sabuku no Temari!"

Once more, the audience roared with the echo of the stadium, wild and fierce and it pierced through Sakura, because it wasn't as fierce as it had been not even at the last match, because she hadn't given them anything to be interested for. She was just an average Gennin that was by no means qualified to become Chuunin.

As she tumbled over clutching her wound, she caught a sparkle of golden that glistened in the stands.

Looking up, she saw the outline of a heavy black coat, imprinted with red blots that she couldn't make out from the distance. The man—no boy—was standing in the shadows, far up from the rest of the crowd. The only way she would have ever noticed was the golden sunshine of its glow in the dying sunlight. It had only taken that one glance, that one look of perfect saffron, to know who it was. She averted her eyes, knowing that the blond probably realized she saw him, and she made her way into the hallway.

Bruised and beaten, Sakura noticed Sasuke padding lightly down the stairs, wondering if this was slightly how Shikamaru felt. Probably not, Shikamaru was too lazy to care.

But, she felt the need to say something, _anything_, and 'good luck' didn't seem like it was a good idea.

"He's here." She said suddenly, but softly.

The Uchiha's eyes, if possible, darkened even more until they nearly bled Sharingan. "I know."

And then he walked into the arena, shoving past a whistling Temari, who only gave him a fleeting warning glance that he didn't bother to match with his own. Sakura decided to get moving before she was stuck in a hallway with _that _battle-axe of a woman.

…

The first thing that Uchiha Sasuke did when he walked into the blinding sunset washed arena, was not to sit and glare precariously at his opponent, but to swivel his head deliberately slow enough to be caught from a good hundred yards away and in the direction of a certain blond that was standing ominously in the corner of the highest stands where there were no people.

That blond was Uzumaki Naruto.

The blond, his arms crossed in his cloak and hat shed, grinned wildly. What a little brat, that Uchiha.

A cocky little bastard, the blond noted duly in his head. Cocky, but he new how to set his sights for the top.

The blond made himself comfortable, leaning against the small ledge that surrounded the very top of the stadium, and watching the announcer raise his right hand up to call the beginning of the match. Sasuke's stance said it all, a cocky boy ready to show off to someone he wanted to intimidate. Naruto wondered if this person was him, or perhaps the Uchiha had seen his older brother?

But that was farfetched, because if the younger of the brothers saw the elder, than he would probably go charging blunt-head first into the other and getting his ass handed back to him.

He'd be good, if he just had something better to base his life on than revenge.

"Not bad." Kisame tapped his chin lightly, hat tipped up to reveal the blue hue of his skin.

The Uchiha, in front of him by a little, watched his younger brother with disinterested eyes, however, Kisame wondered somewhere in the backdrop of his mind if that was just a forefront.

"He is formidable." Itachi said lightly. "But he lacks hatred, and he lacks strength."

"If he wanted to I'm sure he could do something more interesting than that Chidori of his or whatever." Kisame began again. "But I'm sure there's something that Hatake can teach him."

"If you are implying that he would be good for this organization," The Uchiha began. "Then I highly suggest you revaluate."

The man from the Seven Swordsman shrugged. "Well, if he had been given the right environment, I'm sue he would have turned out different. Like Naruto."

The Uchiha's eyes flickered slowly to the spot on the opposite side of the arena where the blond leaned against the frame around the coliseum. Yes, Naruto was very formidable, he was very strong, and he was very smart. But the environment that Naruto had grown up in, filled with blood shed, warped twisted minds, lies and deceit and a thousand dead bodies pooling underneath his feet, was not the kind he wished for his younger brother. Neither was a childhood alone and under the impression that his older brother was a conniving murderer (the murdering part wasn't exactly a lie) but it was at least slightly better.

Outwardly, Itachi only made a grunt.

"You have to admit, the kid's got talent." Kisame's beady eyes never left Naruto's frame. "Whether it's from his unlimited chakra or his heritage, he was built to be great. Kinda makes you feel bad, you know? Knowing we had to claw our way up from the bottom when the kid had the makings to be great from the beginning."

"However, Naruto did not turn out to be a spoiled prince with nothing better to do than slice off heads." Itachi said tonelessly.

Kisame nodded. "True. That's why you can't complain."

The Uchiha watched his younger brother counter a fist of sand, and barrel around while throwing kunai to the redhead, who caught them with bouts of shifting sand.

"Leader-sama seems upset with his temperament, though." Kisame noted. "Man, he's fierce when he's pissed, but he honestly has to something with that temper. Leader'll get mad if his 'project' turns into nothing because Naruto's too hotheaded."

Itachi nodded indifferently, and Kisame brought his head back from staring at Naruto's form when the screech of thousands of birds met his ears, their calls loud and echoing. The haphazard ball of electricity ran up the boy's arms as he sprinted down the wall, the eddies of the sparkling blue electricity fading behind him. His opponent stood still, probably too animalistic to do anything but stare at the substance that was unknown to him. Finally, Gaara had erected a barrier of sand that slowly curled around him like a ball, the brown substance shifting around him very slowly compared to Sasuke's pace hurdling down the wall.

And then the Chidori struck, Sasuke's hand being shoved into the sand.

It was silent.

The cry of birds was muffled by the layer of sand. Nothing was heard but the shuffling and whispers from the crowd, everything had gone quiet, and the announcing Chuunin had taken a tentative step closer, to survey the damage.

Then, a blood curdling scream.

The three Akatsuki members scattered across the arena looked down in mild interest.

"B-blood?" The red head touched the wound lightly, in awe and horror. "M-Mother…what is this?"

Sasuke raised his guard, taking a step back as he noticed the other's shaking getting worse and worse.

"Blood!" Gaara screamed, tearing at his hair in shattered sanity. "Blood! Blood!"

Now Sasuke was shaking, the kunai in his hand so unsteady it visibly shook.

"You'll pay! You'll——

It was then that all hell broke loose.

Suna and Sound launched their attack, all the people in the stands being hit was waves of Genjutsu, the only ones who could block it were a few of the Gennin, the Chuunin, and all of the ANBU and Jounin stationed in the arena. Luckily the Hokage already knew of the attack, and had made sure to put more ANBU in the stands just in case. The Akatsuki members easily blocked the low level genjutsu, it was probably meant for the civilians anyways.

The outer wall broke with a shatter, enormous snakes already smashing all of the buildings in their way. The things were massive, large and spitting with their slit tongues in a way that only Orochimaru would have summons do.

Atop a building rooftop, a cube of purple was erected. Almost immediately did all the ANBU not currently doing something to help leap to the building top, in which both Orochimaru and his former teacher were battling it by themselves. The Sound four had begun erected the barrier to keep intruders out.

The sand siblings, Temari and Kankouro leapt from the Gennin waiting room, grabbing their still screaming brother and jumping over the ledge.

Noticing that his kill was getting away, Naruto pushed off the stadium with such force that he went flying through the air, nearly closing the entirety of the gap that Temari and Kankouro were trying to put between them. He grinned widely, it was time to test himself against his fellow Jinchuuriki, and he could feel Kyuubi shaking in his cage in anxiousness, at the thought of attacking Shukaku, after such a long…long…time. Naruto put a hand to his head as he ran to the forms in front of him, trying to keep the blood lust at bay.

Kankouro sped up a little so that him and his sister ran side by side. "T-Temari…" He gasped. "Who's that?"

Temari sent a furtive look behind them. "I don't know. Shit, this whole plan isn't working out. There were way too many ANBU members in the stadium."

"What about the snakes?" Kankouro tried to peer over the trees they were currently running over, but he couldn't see their enormous forms.

Temari shook her head. "One's already dead, this…_thing_ (she couldn't call it a human) came out of nowhere and killed it." She looked back to the spotted cloak Naruto wore, already closing the gap. "Wore the same thing that guy's wearing. Had blue hair or something."

Kankouro nodded gravely. "We've got to get Gaara to do…something."

They both watched their brother as he gasped for rattling breaths, eyes closed and a slight puncture wound near his chest. It was his first time ever being wounded and he wasn't taking it very well. Without him the ambush wouldn't be able to do much, and it wasn't doing much already, especially with these cloaked Shinobi and the rigid defense Konoha was putting up.

"But Kankouro we—

"You should really keep your guard up."

The siblings looked up sharply, as a shadow fell over their forms, looming in the direction of the sun, making it hard to see where the person was.

The ground suddenly split, and the three of them had to split into different directions to avoid the sharp blast of Earth that sprang up in long, dangerous spikes. However, they had to let go of Gaara, who now lay somewhere not too far from Naruto in the forest clearing. Temari had hurdled into a nearby tree, wincing in pain as she met the rigid bark of Konoha trees against her back. Kankouro skidded into the dirt, limp body twisting and turning with the terrain. Wasn't a very nice landing at all but anything to get away from the attack. It was obvious that the cloaked man in front of them was not here to simply hurt them and take them out until the end of the ambush, but to kill them immediately.

Instead though, the blond ignored them completely, walking slowly to the slightly moving form of their sibling.

Temari pushed herself up first, swinging her fan until blades of wind sent jagged lines against the Earth, coming in Naruto's direction. But the other blond had used his affinity for wind to cut the winds in half.

Kankouro was getting up as well, already moving his puppets.

But the Akatsuki member didn't move from staring at Gaara's unmoving form, as if willing the other boy to move. Even as the two other sand siblings closed the gap to the two of them, he still hadn't moved, still watching the prone form of the red head with aloof eyes.

And then, something stopped the two of them.

Temari's large fan had been caught in the beak of a clay bird. She didn't understand where exactly it came form, or why it was a _bird _until—

"AH!"

She felt herself being pulled backwards, dragging her feet so she wouldn't go flying into a tree again.

It was a bomb.

Kankouro had been met with something different. He had a puppet already on the move, its clawed hands were open and ready for the kill when it had been stopped so suddenly. In fact, it had been cut into several pieces, leaving him stunned and nearly tangled in chakra strings.

He was met face to face with a swirling orange and black mask.

However, unlike nearly anyone else who had ever met the masked Akatsuki member Tobi, they were extremely close to each other. Close enough that Kankouro could get lost in the swirls of orange and black, until they eventually lead him to the single eye whole in the mask. He blinked in surprise. His last thoughts were wondering what kind of Sharingan the man had, before said man activated it on him.

Kankouro fell forward, lost in the blank unconsciousness of hypnotism.

Madara—not Tobi, because for once, he wasn't acting—stared at the form below him in thought.

The Uchiha lazily peered over to his 'teammates'. Naruto had already begun battling an unconscious Gaara, who had unleashed the demon Shukaku unknowingly. Even if Naruto did beat the monster in front of him (which was rather probably, considering Naruto's own mastery of the demon inside of him) they wouldn't seal the thing just yet. It would ruin the plans that he had for the upcoming years for Akatsuki, and Naruto, if he revealed Akatsuki's true purpose too soon.

With a last look at Deidara's final blows to the exhausted other blond, he decided that he had important things to talk about with Pein, and teleported out of there.

"—Tobi?" Deidara called over his shoulder, worriedly, half expecting to see Tobi on the ground and that Kankouro kid ready with a final blow.

The kunoichi from sand—Temari—fell over into the ground, unconscious and exhausted. Currently Deidara didn't feel like finishing her off, she wasn't about to get up any time soon anyways.

What really interested him, was the minced form of a puppet and the limp form of the puppet master.

Tobi did that…?

"Maybe that idiot is good for something after all." Deidara shrugged, disinterested.

He turned his attention back to Naruto and Gaara, where Naruto got side swept with a massive paw of sand. The blond hurtled into the ground, growling lowly at the enormous form of Shukaku. Obviously Naruto was going to win, but he seemed to be having some trouble at the moment with the 'weakest link' of the Bijuu.

The blond sprang up, delivering a kick directly into Gaara's face, not the monster's face, but Gaara's.

The monster howled, thrown into the ground and clawing to get up.

While he was down, Naruto powered his Rasengan, the glowing blue ball spinning crazily in all different directions, blue as the azure sky and glowing iridescently in the Konoha sunshine.

When the ball of pure chakra hit the monster, it howled in pain.

Finally, Gaara woke up.

Gaara's blinking eyes met Naruto's aloof hooded ones, as Naruto regarded the other boy. Maybe in contempt, like the eyes of a predator watching his prey struggle in its last moments of life. Or maybe as a fellow Jinchuuriki, lost in a world filled with dripping blood and lifeless bodies and no one that really cared. Naruto had gotten over the feeling a long, long time ago, but for some reason, watching the boy below him struggling to get up, he felt the wash of emotions over him again.

He remembered his life in Konoha, the bitter pieces of memory that had no happiness, nothing but depression and the harsh faces of everyone he met. He remembered how much he hated the orphanage, how the caretakers and the other kids hated him, how he used to take the blows without flinching because he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

He remembered the first few months in Akatsuki, with everyone who looked at him looked like the wanted to eat him. And Leader's face in contempt because Naruto of how weak Naruto was, and how he couldn't even make a Bunshin.

He saw that when he saw Gaara struggling to push himself off the ground, helpless and weak and unable to do a thing about it.

The life of a Jinchuuriki.

"You're names Gaara, right?" He called out lightly, putting his hands in his pockets.

The other Jinchuuriki sent him a look that could wither plants.

"I don't understand why you think you're the only one who has to go through shit everyday." He started, coldly watching the way Shukaku's spine straightened. "It's the life of a Jinchuuriki. And you can sit there and think that this is shit and that there's nothing you can do with your life, or you could get up and prove that you're stronger than them. Got it?"

The other's green eyes watched him with interest, watched the toned muscles under tanned skin, the scars that ran up his arms thinly from where the cloak was pulled up. And he watched the other boy's eyes, flickering red with the movement of the sun, his intense-eyed form standing perilously above him, and Gaara realized that this man right in front of him, was strong. He was a Jinchuuriki, and he was strong.

"Who…are you?" His voice was raspy.

Naruto watched him with interest, as the boy's knees buckled as he tried to get up.

"U—" He blinked, and stopped himself. "Namikaze Naruto, Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, and member of Akatsuki."

The other Jinchuuriki let the information sink. "Sabuku no Gaara…Shukaku.. Jinchuuriki…" He felt the ground rushing up to meet him, and felt his vision swim and then turn into nothingness.

Naruto watched him for a few moments, the kid had will power, that was for sure.

Deidara was watching him interestedly from the other side of the clearing and he scowled. He didn't want Deidara to go about telling the rest of Akatsuki about this.

"Let's go." Naruto sighed. "Itachi and Kisame said that Leader-sama would be here, so we should probably report back."

"Leader-sama?" Deidara blinked. "Here?"

Naruto nodded. "Him and Konan-san are, but I don't know why. I doubt it's because of Orochimaru, it's probably something more."

"You go ahead. I'm going to find Kisame, got a bone to pick with him." Deidara told him, and they split into different directions.

--

--

--

--

When Naruto rushed up, he saw Konan first.

She had a paper butterfly delicately on one of her fingers, it was a pretty thing. They were her informants, and this one was colored blue with purple speckles, looking so entirely like an actual butterfly that it was nearly impossible to tell if it was paper or not unless you saw Konan near by. She was listening to it closely, and he suspected that they were communicating or something. How, was anyone's guess. There was much he didn't know about Konan, or Leader for that matter. Even if Leader was his adopted father he still didn't have the slightest clue of anything about him.

When she saw him, her eyes blinked at him, before returning to her butterfly, the only true way he new that she saw him was the nod of her head.

The building rooftop was a vast terrain of concrete, filled with splattered blood and air conditioning units.

He made out Leader's form, adorned with the usual Akatsuki cloak and a straw hat, the paper fringes flowing gently in the wind. It seems that Orochimaru had tried to flee the scene with his Sound accomplices, however, Leader had intercepted him and his ninja, and from the looks of the one-hit fatal injuries the limp bodies scattered around the building top, he took care of them easily. Some were sprawled out of the ground with blood pooling beneath them, others were strewn atop the air conditioning units. It looked like he had killed them all instantly from the air.

Naruto figured that Leader had decided that it was much easier for him just to come out and kill the traitor himself, although Naruto highly, highly doubted that was the only reason that he was here. Knowing Leader, it was probably something much more than that.

He didn't see Orochimaru yet.

What he did see though, surprised him.

Tobi was leaning against one of the larger air conditioning units, the low drone of them was loud enough that he couldn't hear what they were saying over the wind or the units. His cloak was tucked in his folded arms, and he looked casual, as did Leader. But there was something very different about this situation.

Tobi didn't look dumb, for once.

It looked like they were discussing something of interest.

Leader didn't look annoyed either, if anything he looked tense. When was Tobi so…concentrated? He was usually staring out in space.

"Konan-san?" He asked tentatively.

Konan folded the butterfly and placed it somewhere inside her cloak, turning to look at him. "Yes?"

"Uh, why are you guys here?" He surveyed the damage, and the large snakes that were lying dead in the street.

"Leader-sama had business to take care of nearby." Konan seemed to choose her words carefully, as if not to tell him much of anything.

He frowned slowly. "Well, okay. I take it you guys took care of Orochimaru?"

Konan nudged her head slightly to wear Tobi and Pein were conversing quietly, and he noticed the dead body and the inky black hair that spread over the head. Definitely Orochimaru.

Orochimaru's strength paled in comparison to Leader's; that was easily noted.

He walked up slowly, as the last tips of sunlight cast long shadows painted in strokes of darkness, lengthened until Leader's shadow nearly reached the end of the building, the flapping coat ominous against the red washed sunset.

Madara looked up in mid speech, silencing their personal conversation before Naruto could even glimpse it. He caught a glance of Leader's reaction through the fringes of his hat, and was deciding whether he should act like his true self or become under the alias of Tobi. Naruto's long face though proved that he wasn't about to be fooled by it again, the sunshine hair being pushed back by the wind, his coat flowing distantly. At first he eyed the dead corpse of Orochimaru, punctured and beyond repair. Leader really did a number on him.

Then he eyed Tobi, or Madara really, with another glare that matched his fiery temper.

"So why'd you send us on this dumb mission if you ended up doing the job for us?" He asked lightly, but his eyes spoke otherwise.

"It wasn't deliberate." Leader chided him, pulling his hat lower.

"And it was a good way to measure your…skills." Madara added.

"And obviously, you're not a dipshit like you like to run around and say you are." Naruto said sharply, watching the mask for any indication that his words had hit something.

But Madara shrugged indifferently. "You would have acted much differently if you knew who I was."

Naruto snorted softly. "I _still _don't know who you are."

"Uchiha Madara, nice to meet you." He waved to the young boy warmly.

Naruto blinked. "…Uchiha—?"

"But that's enough introductions for today." Madara cut him off, tone light. "Naruto, we have a proposition for you."

Naruto frowned slightly at the words. Proposition? What did they mean by that? However, he said nothing, opting to listen in and decipher whether he wanted to take the chance or not.

"What?" He asked impatiently.

"Konoha is in need of a new Hokage."

Naruto had no idea where Leader was going with this, but he froze considerably. The only reason that Konoha would need a new Hokage was that the old one was…

"What happened to the Sandaime?!" He burst quickly.

"He's not dead, if that's what you're asking. Orochimaru got to him before we could, and he's in the hospital now." Madara chastised him lightly. "He'll be fine."

Naruto looked skeptical, but he didn't say anything.

"What does that have to do with me?" He asked skeptically.

"As you already know your true father was a man by the name of Namikaze Minato." Pein told him blandly. "He was the Yondaime Hokage, and had many, many contacts. One of them is in the village right now, a man by the name of Jiraiya, and also one of the three Sannin. He's currently here and is probably going to be the next Hokage now that Sarutobi has been injured. If you can find him, he may have something to teach you."

"Teach me?" Naruto's brow shot up in surprise. "Like what?"

The Leader showed no movement that he even heard the statement, pulling his cloak as he stepped over Orochimaru's body. Konan was brushing past him as he sputtered indignantly, using her papery hands to pull her hair back into its orderly bun, and placing the paper flower in as well. He was still, as Madara followed in suit, coolly pushing himself off the wall of the air conditioning and following Pein as he walked to the other side of the building.

He was half way into following them to get more answers when the Pein turned around.

"I suppose you'll find that out, won't you?"

And then, then they disappeared in ashen smoke, the tendrils of the substance curling with the wind.

"God dammit." Naruto spat, more in frustration then in anger. He was sick of Leader's stupid mind games.

He looked up at the sky, dusk moving into twilight as the moon overtook the last bits of saffron with its stretching limbs of navy blue.

"Jiraiya…huh?"

* * *

_So I've decided to do something different then the plot I followed on the prev. AC. Tell me what you think?  
_


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